


Edge and Ice

by storm_of_sharp_things



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Chronicles of Riddick Series
Genre: A lot of sex, D/s themes, M/M, Porn With Plot, ShivFrost, Switching, a little Stoicism, a little Zen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-28
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2019-12-25 21:03:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 45,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18269303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storm_of_sharp_things/pseuds/storm_of_sharp_things
Summary: Two fugitives cross paths: Riddick meets Loki and rather explicit sex ensues. Neither of them expected a bond of any sort.Roughly weaves a growing relationship around the movie canon for them both until we run out of it and I get to indulge myself with literal world-building and the sort of twisted happily-ever-after that you might hope for for these two.





	1. A Meeting of Fugitives

**Author's Note:**

  * For [foxtales](https://archiveofourown.org/users/foxtales/gifts).



> All blame (for the idea), as well as all credit, goes to my darling sister [foxtales](https://archiveofourown.org/users/foxtales), who told me one night in a state of amused exasperation to "just write some effing porn already."
> 
> All blame for grammar, punctuation, florid writing style, and other unforgivable offenses of course falls on me.

Riddick paused at the entrance to the cave, the edges of his furs whipping in the icy wind, inhaling deeply to test the air. He hadn't been back to this cave in awhile, and something _else_ had moved in while he was away. There were no tracks in the deep snow, but a warm spicy scent spread from the depths, more like cooking than any animal reek. No, more like…tea?

His eyes narrowed behind the goggles. He’d never figured a Merc would drink something _civilized_.

He slipped warily along the inside of the cave wall, shiv settled in each hand, booted feet silent and sure on the ice as he hunted his way around the bends and out of the wind. A soft glow lit the edge of the last bend before the cave opened up into a snug chamber.

Riddick had left a pile of pelts he'd tanned there as well as a cache of meat stored in the ice. He had not left a light. There was still a faint carcass smell, but now there were also the clean pure scents of spices, food, freshly laundered clothes. It was almost overpowering after years on this frozen planet. He heard a sigh, a sip and swallow of liquid, the rustle of fabric.

He leaned just far enough to get a glimpse inside. Humanoid, male, dark hair, pale skin with a blue tinge. Cradling a delicate cup of something steaming hot and ludicrously well-dressed for someone sitting cross-legged on a pile of furs on an icy hellhole at the ass-end of nowhere. A tiny portable lamp was stuck to the cave wall above his head.

Riddick leaned back against the cave wall and considered, a furrow forming above the bridge of his nose. Not a Merc. Not full human with that skin tone and dressed too rich to be any sort of half-breed. Alien nobility was his best guess, but it’d be a hell of a story that ended up with that pretty boy here.

A mental shrug and a quick flash of his teeth; he'd been getting bored anyway. He rolled his shoulders and stepped into the dim light cast by the lamp.

Green eyes fixed on him over the edge of the cup before it was casually lowered. “I hope you didn't believe you were sneaking up on me. I've been smelling you since you came in out of the wind.” A rich voice, casually mocking, no fear in it. No fear scent rising either.

“Kinda hard to wash with ice,” Riddick growled.

Pretty Boy straightened his spine. “Gods’ _blood_ , how long has it been since you spoke to anyone? Do you always sound like that?” Definitely no fear scent at all, but an interesting drift of something else…

Riddick inhaled slowly, rolling the scent down into his mouth, waiting.

Pretty Boy waved the cup dismissively. “No, no, you're right, that's hardly the point. I was delighted to find your primitive little refuge here, but it seemed ages since it had been inhabited. Nice work on these furs, by the by. Whatever did you use to tan them?”

“Brains.”

A pause. “You…no, you mean that literally, don't you? You used the brains from your dinners to tan their own pelts.”

Riddick shrugged one shoulder.

“How…resourceful. Well. Would you like some tea?”

Riddick watched the expressions flit freely across the face. “You're not a Merc.”

Pretty Boy wrinkled his nose in contemptuous distaste. “As it happens, I am not. You've a bounty on your head, then?”

Riddick continued to assess him. Not a boy, despite the smooth skin. Older than his body language and expressions led you to think. Riddick tilted his head, inhaling again. Deceptive…

A light laugh with an expansive gesture. “I can see I'll bear the weight of this conversation. But where _are_ my manners? I am Loki, known among other things as God of Mischief, scion of jötnar, master of illusion, and heir to the throne of Asgard. And you are?”

Riddick read the wariness underlying the easy grin. No fear scent, but that distracting drift of something else… Ah. Distraction was probably the whole point.

“Richard B Riddick. Escaped convict. Murderer.”

“Hmm.” Loki tapped his mouth thoughtfully with a finger. “Riddick. I believe I have heard of you. And I may just have need of a murderer. Perhaps we can come to an agreement, hmm?” A delicate nose wrinkle as he glanced at Riddick's long hair and beard, the shaggy furs. “I think I can be persuaded to include an opportunity to tidy yourself up.”

Riddick indicated an expanse of cave wall beside Loki. “That your ship?”

Loki frowned at him, and Riddick read a sharp spike of alarm, quickly covered. “There's nothing there.”

Riddick raised an eyebrow. Was it supposed to be hidden? “A little hard to focus on.” Now was there a hint of fear in that many-layered scent? Riddick rubbed the tip of his tongue against the roof of his mouth and decided not.

“How in the _hells_ are you seeing past…well, never mind.” Loki flicked his fingers dramatically, theatrically, like a magician Riddick had once seen who distracted a mark with one hand while the other shifted a prop. Riddick kept his eyes focused on Loki while the shimmer faded, revealing a smooth metal surface with the outline of a door. He appeared to cross his arms and settle back with a pout, but Riddick could see, like a ghost or a mirage, that Loki had actually risen to his feet and was reaching behind himself.

Riddick lunged through the illusion with knives aimed for the true Loki, who dodged neatly to the side and backed away quickly, watching him with startled dismay as the illusion shimmered and cleared. Riddick reassessed. Faster than he looked. More agile. His movements said trained fighter, a tell that disappeared while he was just standing there. _Interesting_.

Loki held up both hands, empty. “All right, all right, peace, Riddick.”

“I don't like your tricks.” And _still_ there was no real scent of fear. More and more interesting.

“Yes, I can tell,” Loki replied dryly, indicating the knives. “Peace, I said.”

Riddick huffed a laugh. “And why should I trust you?”

“Ah, because I'm charming?”

Riddick bared his teeth in a feral grin. “Try something else.”

Loki smiled with sudden condescension. “Because I can easily take those knives away from you, human?” The pretty thing even managed to swagger while standing still.

Riddick's grin turned predatory. There it was. A tasty confidence, layered and veined with that elusive _other_ scent. “Try,” Riddick drawled.

Loki was already moving and he was fast and strong, Riddick would give him that, and he knew some dirty tricks. But he’d been heavily trained and had mostly fought against other trained fighters. Riddick faked a throat-opening swipe and left the other knife in a deliberately vulnerable position. Loki was quick enough to take advantage of it, twisting it away, but then he was backing off with a mildly alarmed look, holding his hands up again, knife held loosely in one. He was quicker to take advantage than to look for a trap, Riddick thought, though he'd seen it fast enough not to completely fall for it.

“Well, we would seem to be more matched than I anticipated, wouldn't you agree?” Loki said as he flashed a slightly nervous grin, but still, _still_ , there was no smell of fear about him. He offered the knife back to Riddick, staying well out of arm’s reach. Riddick tilted his head and waited, and Loki tossed it to him.

Riddick snatched the knife out of the air without looking at it, watched Loki instead, expressionless and intent. Then he let his feral grin return, one corner of his mouth hooked a little higher than the other. “Why don't you tell me why you're here, ‘Heir to the throne of Asgard?’”

Loki scowled, looking away. “There was a tiny disagreement with my father and brother. And a little matter of temporary exile.” A touch of real annoyance there, a secret hunger flashing across that so-mobile face, a twist to the well-shaped but thin mouth.

“So you're a fugitive. Hiding out.”

Loki’s shoulders sagged just a little. “At the moment, I find it expedient to be elsewhere.” He flicked a glance at Riddick, then away. “Yes.”

Riddick considered him, weighed possibilities against probabilities. Took another deep taste of the air between them, assessing, and sheathed his knives. “You got hot water on that ship of yours?”

 

 

Loki sat in the pilot’s seat, finding himself watching the closed door to the bathroom with unexpected anticipation.

Riddick had prowled the small ship like any big cat would. In the main cabin, he’d glanced over the controls and then sniffed in the direction of the large bed. He'd opened every cabinet, investigated the kitchen equipment thoroughly, and finally paused in the doorway of the bathroom, surveying the small but sybaritic chamber.

“I guess you don't skimp on the luxuries.”

Loki’d snorted. “I may be in exile, but I made damned sure I stole an excellent ship.”

Riddick had stepped into the bathroom, tilted his head in that appraising way, and turned to look at him. “This might take a while.”

Loki had bestowed upon him a magnanimous hand gesture. “Indulge away.”

An indecipherable noise deep in his throat and a long stare, and Riddick had shut the door. Since then, Loki had heard the water several times, including an extended session in the shower. At one point, he was sure he'd heard a low-pitched noise that might've been a moan, quickly suppressed. That, _that_ , much to his startlement, had gone straight to his groin.

In leaving Asgard behind, he hadn't been looking for company, had in fact been relieved to think the frozen planet he'd found was empty of intelligent life. When he'd located the cave and hidden his ship securely within the rock and ice, he'd been startled to discover the little cache of supplies, though they’d seemed abandoned. The gorgeous pelts had been expertly tanned, however, and while they still smelled of beast, they were lusciously soft and he couldn't help being tempted by them.

And then the advent of the predator… Loki admitted to himself, if no one else, that his carnal tastes were quite particular; Riddick, though… Riddick was more tantalizing than anyone Loki had encountered in eons, even filthy, shaggy, and ragged. He was _dangerous_. A self-confessed killer. Faster and stronger than a human ought to be; a match for an Asgardian, possibly, though Loki had been careful to conceal his true capabilities in that little sharp-edged exchange they'd shared. But then Loki suspected Riddick had concealed his capabilities as well.

And under the rank animal fetor, Loki had caught a hint of a scent so _male_ that it had his blood stirring.  It'd been a long time since he'd been quite so sensually tempted. This little jaunt might turn out to be just the distraction he needed, after all.

 

 

Riddick had been quietly impressed by the more advanced technology of the small ship, alien, non-human, and yet strangely understandable. His hands itched to touch the controls, to see if that odd familiarity was true, if it would translate into usefulness.

The bathroom though…the bathroom was something he didn't try to find words for. He just wanted. After so long spent just surviving, even on inhabited planets, and after all this time on this frozen pesthole, the possibility that he had all this luxury at his disposal, that he could be absolutely clean, for however short a time, had him wanting it badly enough to risk the distraction.

He turned the lights down low and pulled off the goggles, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. After a glance at himself in the mirror, he grimaced and quickly shaved his face and head with a knife, dropping the dirty hanks of hair into the disposal and watching them flash into ashes and then nothing. He peeled out of layers of furs and scruffy gear until he was naked in the warm air and turned to study the shower. A little experimentation with the flow and temperature controls found him a deluge of hot pure water that made him stifle a moan, bite his lip, and brace his hands on the shower wall while he stood under the flood of it. It felt so obscenely _good_ that he shivered on the wrong edge of arousal, something that wasn't helped by the ridiculously silky soap he found. He scrubbed himself all over as harshly as he could with the damn stuff, more than half-hard but refusing to give in to the urge to jack himself off. It'd been…some time since he’d felt safe enough. He did linger under the water after rinsing, letting it beat down on his neck and back, feeling warmed through, loose and relaxed, until he’d softened enough that getting dressed wouldn't be a problem.

Turning the water off started a strong flow of warm air from several directions that quickly dried him. He found a cabinet and pulled out a set of soft black pants and a black sleeveless top and pulled them on, pleased that the pants would accommodate his knives, then settled the goggles back on and rolled his shoulders before opening the bathroom door.

 

 

Loki blinked and exhaled. “Don't _you_ clean up well?”

Alarmingly well, actually. He hadn't expected Riddick to shave his head, but it…suited him. And while Loki had _assumed_ there was a fine strong body under the furs, the actual sight of him outlined in the snug-fitting clothes sent a warm surge from the base of his spine to the back of his throat. He resisted the urge to lick his lips as Riddick moved past him to the kitchen. Bleeding _gods_ , the man smelled so good Loki's lungs seem to seize up for a moment.

Riddick had been pulling food from storage; he paused and turned his head to look at him, inhaling deeply. A faint smirk twitched his mouth and then he went back to opening packages and sniffing at them.

Loki laughed a little breathlessly. “Do make yourself free of my hospitality.”

“You already offered.” The predator seated himself at the little table and started tearing into the various food items.

Loki watched him eat; he was savage, yet fastidious, like any great cat. He ate with his fingers, fast and neat, clearly enjoying most of the items, but not turning away from the ones that didn't please him. He found one that made his nose wrinkle and looked at it for a long moment, turning it over and smelling at it, then shrugged and downed it anyway. It was obvious that he was used to eating for fuel and not for delight.

 

 

Riddick was somewhat startled at the taste and quality of the pre-packaged food. Even the things that didn't taste quite the way they smelled were good. The self-described godling had said indulge, and Riddick didn't intend to waste any opportunities that came his way.

He watched Loki from behind his dark goggles, knowing the other couldn't see the direction of his gaze. There was another opportunity that was clearly on offer, and Riddick considered it, turning the thought over and over while he ate.

He had to admit it was an enticing idea. He was entirely self-reliant and usually another warm body was a dangerous option.  He'd had prostitutes when the urge hit him, or occasionally picked up partners in dive bars, but this would be a different situation entirely. Just him and this somewhat dangerous godling in a small ship, no quick transaction or just walking away afterward. And he wanted the ship, could tell it was fast and powerful and could take him places away from human space, away from bounties and Mercs…

He felt his lip curl a little. Hell, he'd probably get bored. And pretty Loki would probably object and, surprisingly enough, he found he had no desire to just kill him for his ship. No, the desires he had for Loki, sitting there staring at him in a drift of pheromones…

He thought of pinning Loki onto that soft bed in the corner, holding him down, and still, while he drove his cock into him, making him whimper, making him cry out sounds that were so far past words…

It made his hips shift a little as his cock started to fill and his mouth moved in a tiny tight smile. A little hitch in Loki’s breathing and that tantalizing drift of scent re-focused him and Riddick lifted his head, putting the food down.

 

 

Loki let slip a vexed noise at being caught out and turned his face away for a moment before squaring his shoulders and looking back at Riddick. “All right, no sense in being modest, I suppose. We're clearly considering the same thing.”

Riddick slowly leaned back in the chair, crossing his arms and stretching his legs out, muscle shifting under the thin pants, exuding a predatory ease and control. His head tilted a bit, the very embodiment of amused arrogance. “Are we?” he rumbled, eyebrow rising.

“If we aren't both thinking about sex, then I am very much misled.” Loki watched the predator consider that, taking a deep breath, the slight movements of his jaw suggesting he was _tasting_ it.

“I'm thinking you may be _misled_ about who's gonna end up where,” Riddick said, though the corner of his mouth tucked up.

Loki’s anticipation crested. That wasn't a refusal. “No, no, I have worked that out.”

“ _Have_ you.”

Loki laughed at the mockery, executed perfectly in that bass rumble that tugged every string he'd never known was attached to his cock. “Oh, indeed I have. It's a matter of who has the most to lose, after all.” He leaned forward in the chair.

“Go on,” Riddick drawled.

“Right now, you've nothing I _need_ , save of course your very tempting self.” Loki grinned and flourished his bait. “I, on the other hand, have a small, fast, fully stocked ship with a bathroom that makes you moan.”

Riddick’s chin lifted infinitesimally at that, but a wry smile tempered the reaction. “Point,” he allowed.

“Therefore, putting myself under your nominal control would be foolhardy, whereas my having you is not subject to the same jeopardy.” Loki spread his hands, a gesture inviting praise due. Now if Riddick would just accept his reasoning…

“Mmm.” His low, thoughtful noise reverberated in Loki’s belly. “Not the way I'd normally work it out.”

Loki frowned at that and opened his mouth to argue and then Riddick was _right there_ , hauling him bodily out of his seat and dropping him on the bed in almost the same motion. He gasped and it was the predator that was over him, inhaling deeply at his throat and lightly stroking the sensitive skin under his jawline with the tip of his tongue, a little growl tickling the pulse-point under the corner of his jaw.

Loki was suddenly and helplessly hardening. “I, I suppose we could…discuss it…”

Riddick snorted, rolling off to the side and onto his back where he grinned at the ceiling, tucking his hands underneath his head. “You gonna tell me you haven't got this ship locked down? It'll respond to anyone at the controls?”

“Well, no…” Loki was distracted, sorting frantically through strategies designed to get Riddick back in full body contact.

“So your _reasoning_ is therefore _invalid_.” Again the rumbling mockery.

Loki made an exasperated gesture. “I certainly can't be blamed for trying.”

“Can't you?”

Loki came up on an elbow and let his hungry gaze slide down the length of Riddick’s body. “I would argue otherwise, to be sure.”

Riddick took a deep open-mouthed inhale and stretched, arching his hips, his cock a half-hard column outlined under the black pants. Loki’s breath caught and he reached out a hand, hovering over Riddick’s sculpted abdomen. Riddick watched him, a lazy smile playing over his mouth. “Remind me who's in control again?” the predator murmured.

Loki had a mare’s nest of triggers in his head, tied to good memories and bad, and sometimes the wires crossed in unexpected ways. He found himself on his feet, pacing, arms crossed, not looking at the splendid specimen sprawled across his bed. A couple of deep breaths gave him back control of his voice. “I am not used to meeting others on any sort of…equal footing.”

“I can tell.”

Loki couldn't hear any obvious mockery in that statement but it still dug in. He bared his teeth and looked away to the side, desire and frustration twining maddeningly in his head.

Riddick sighed. “There's a word I'm looking for…”

“Volatile? Erratic? Unstable?” Loki bit his teeth together to stop the words, wincing a little at the bitterness that slipped out.

“Mmmm.” The rumbled sound was practically subsonic this time, and distracted Loki enough that he turned to look at him.

Riddick was stroking the length of his own cock through his pants with a thumb, head thrown back. Loki's cock hardened fully so fast it felt like the predator had stabbed a knife in him after all. Riddick’s mouth curled at his involuntary noise and he turned his head to look at Loki.

“Got your attention back.”

“Yes.” Loki nodded. “Yes, you do.”

“Good. I'm right here. You're right here. Remember that.” He stroked himself again and Loki licked his lips at the sight, leaned over the bed to put a hand on Riddick's thigh, glanced up at his face.

“Why do you wear the goggles?”

Riddick dropped his hand away from himself with a forceful sigh, turning his head to look up at the ceiling. “You're all over the place.”

“Don't stop! I just…would prefer to see your eyes.”

Riddick's face turned to him, obviously studying him. “Turn down the lights. Most of the way.”

Loki snapped a command and the lights dimmed.

Riddick considered the result and nodded, reaching up to pull off the goggles and drop them at the edge of the bed. He blinked and then turned to look at Loki, his eyes flashing silver at a certain angle. “They're shined. I can see...”

Loki made a helplessly inarticulate noise and found himself atop Riddick, kissing at him fiercely. Riddick allowed it, encouraged it, bringing a hand up to cup Loki's head.

“…different wavelengths,” he finished with a chuckle when Loki moved away from his mouth enough.

Loki breathed out, resting his forehead against Riddick's chest. “Does _nothing_ affect you?”

Riddick tangled his fingers in Loki's hair, pulling his head up. “You do.”

Another impulsive, almost inexplicable, surge of discontent. “You don't seem so affected.”

Riddick raised an eyebrow and waved a hand at his own hips. “Seems pretty clear. Hey.” He twisted his fingers in Loki's hair to grip and shook Loki's head gently. “We're gonna do this.” He rolled them onto their sides and reached down to cup Loki's cock through his clothes.

“Riddick…”

He made a sound of amused exasperation. “Do you _ever_ stop talking? What d’you use for lube?” He let go of Loki to lean over and search the drawers by the bed.

Loki pressed his forehead to the bed. Somehow he'd completely dropped the reins and the predator was now running the show. His mouth quirked as he examined that very mixed metaphor, then he pushed himself up and stalked to the bathroom to retrieve a small container of lubricant. When he came back out, Riddick was standing by the bed, stripping, and the sight stopped him in his tracks. He was all warm skin and muscle, scars and smoothness, a lazy smile aimed at Loki as he stroked his cock idly.

Loki tossed the container onto the bed and started pulling at his own clothes. Riddick tilted his head and circled him once as Loki discarded his clothing, then to Loki's utter shock, Riddick settled smoothly to his knees on the floor in front of him.

“Here's how we're gonna do this,” he growled, taking hold of Loki's hips and pulling him so close that his lips brushed Loki's cock with every word. “I'm gonna suck you dry first. Then you'll fuck me on your soft, civilized bed. That work for you?”

“ _Yes_.” Loki groaned, hand on the back of Riddick's head. He rested the other hand on Riddick's shoulder. “Yes, that will…definitely work…but what about you?”

“I'll use my hand while you come in my throat, and after that, well, you'll be in charge, godling.”

 

 

Riddick grinned at Loki's shock. He sure as hell wouldn't do this for a quick fuck, but Loki was pretty damn high-strung and Riddick needed him to work off some of that agitated energy first.

He leaned a little forward and pressed his mouth to the head of Loki's cock, touching the slit at the tip there briefly with his tongue to catch the taste, then taking a deep breath before opening his mouth and pressing all the way down, ruthlessly suppressing his gag reflex, until his lips settled at the base. It felt like Loki reached all the way down into his chest and his thickness made Riddick's throat bulge. He was briefly surprised by Loki’s thumbs pressing against his throat while his hands wrapped around the back of Riddick's neck kept his head from moving back. _So you've got the right instincts_ , Riddick thought. _Even if you need a shove in the right direction to get started._

His own cock twitched at the mock struggle and he wrapped one hand around himself while he planted the other against Loki's hip and shoved back enough to take another breath. Loki snarled and fucked back into his mouth, both hands holding the back of Riddick's head while he thrust.

Riddick allowed it, only shoving back to snatch a breath when he needed, matching the strokes of his hand to Loki's urgent rhythm, knowing neither of them were going to take very long.

Loki came deep in his throat, crying out as his fingers curled against Riddick's skull. Riddick swallowed hard against the obstruction, repeatedly, until the pulsing of the cock against his tongue stopped. As he pushed off backward to suck in a breath, he found Loki dropping to his knees, one hand pulling him in for an rough kiss while the other wrapped around Riddick's cock, overlapping his hand and urging him to finish.

Riddick came hard as Loki sucked at his tongue and swallowed all his guttural noises.

Then they were both panting, kneeling together with their foreheads resting against each other, and Loki brushed Riddick's throat with gentle fingertips.

“I cannot _wait_ to hear how you sound after that.”

He swallowed hard a couple times. “You get turned on by gravel?” he grated.

Loki breathed a laugh and leaned back on his heels. “In this case? Come here, you great beast, and clean up the mess you made on me.” He indicated the streaks of Riddick's come striping his chest and stomach before swiping a finger through one and holding it out to Riddick.

Riddick wrinkled his nose but licked Loki's finger, sucking it into his mouth for a moment. The godling hummed approval, then leaned back on his hands for support as Riddick bent over him to run his tongue over Loki's skin.

“Ah, ah, no biting,” Loki said just as a Riddick was considering a nipple thoughtfully. Riddick turned his head slowly to look at him, his eyes flashing dangerously. “Not yet, you savage. We are resting. As a matter of fact, if you've finished tidying me up, I'd prefer to rest on the bed.”

Riddick shrugged, amused, and took himself to the bed, sprawling across it with a challenging stare. Loki grinned and shoved him over, making room to sprawl beside him. Riddick rumbled, almost a purr, deep in his chest, and let his eyes drift shut, unexpectedly willing to doze.

He woke up on his stomach with slick fingers tracing down the crack of his ass to play at the suddenly clenching hole there.

“Damn, civilized, you're really going to just jump my ass like that?” he growled.

“I was bored,” Loki admitted. “You were boring. And now you're not.”

Riddick lifted on his elbows to look at him incredulously. “Are you a _child_?”

“Mmm, sometimes…”

“I don't fuck kids.”

“Then it's just as well you're the one getting fucked, isn't it?”

Riddick huffed a wry laugh and dropped his forehead to the bed. Managing this godling, navigating the emotional minefield, was turning out to be interesting work. The pleasures had better fucking well be worth the effort though. Erratic was definitely a word that came to mind.

Loki chuckled. “Damn, beast, you're really going to just give in like that?”

“This time,” Riddick rumbled. “Gotta learn what you get wrong so I can teach you better.”

Loki grinned and shoved Riddick's legs apart to kneel between them. “If you've something to complain of after, I will be glad to take your lessons.”

“Get to it before I change my mind,” Riddick growled. He deliberately and visibly relaxed against the bed, and took a breath, savoring the rush of pheromones rolling off Loki as the pretty godling realized Riddick truly was yielding control to him.

 

 

Loki laughed softly as the realization flashed through him. He burned with sudden heat and felt the flush of control rush through him. If Riddick was going to submit, he was going to take. And he was going to _enjoy_ it. He kneaded Riddick’s ass teasingly. “Oh but no, my predator, there will be no rushing this. Let me tell you what is going to happen. I _am_ going to fuck you on my soft, civilized bed, Riddick.” He drew out the man’s name with licentious delectation, pulling apart his cheeks and pressing his lubricated fingertip into the predator‘s hole. He delighted in the resulting twitch and the rising growl. “And you are going to allow me my whims and caprices, not _just_ because you will enjoy them…” He added another finger just to watch Riddick’s back and shoulders flex, tighten, and relax. “…but because it means you will be that much closer…” He worked his fingers in and out, twisting and curling them teasingly. “…to the time when you will be buried as deep in _me_ …” He found and stroked Riddick's prostate. “…as I will be in you momentarily.”

Riddick exhaled hard, forcing his hands to flatten and relax against the sheets, and flashed him a silver glare over his shoulder. “Never known anyone who talks as much as you.”

Loki pulled his fingers out and leaned over him, one hand pressed between his shoulder blades to murmur in his ear. “And you didn't know that it enflamed and aroused you so, did you?”

“Usually kill them.” Riddick broke off as Loki growled warningly in his ear.

“Right now,” Loki said, “you will do nothing but accept the pleasure I will wring out of your body. “ He settled himself full-length against Riddick, his hips against Riddick's ass, his cock sliding against the slicked cleft. “Yes?”

Riddick dropped his face to the bed, back and legs tensing. Loki bit his shoulder hard, drawing a little blood, and Riddick snarled and bared his teeth but didn't throw him off.

“Yes?” Loki repeated, dangerously soft.

“ _Yes.”_

 Loki pushed himself up and back to settle on his knees between Riddick's spread thighs. “Then I want you on your knees and elbows, Riddick. I want you to present yourself to me, offer yourself.”

He watched the tension flash across the predator’s body, the protesting curl of the fingers in the sheets, the shift of the shoulders. He saw the conflict and the moment of decision and felt the grace of it like the beneficent hand of heaven on his cock as Riddick exhaled and rose with a feline glide to position himself before him. Loki placed his hands in a momentary gentle benison on Riddick’s hips, fingers tracing circles on the skin, then he grasped hard and pulled himself up to press against him. The predator shivered slightly and Loki leaned back again to gather up lubricant and slick himself, making the slippery noises as lewd and suggestive as possible. His mouth quirked at the pleasing tense quiver that followed, and he took his cock in hand and pressed into Riddick slowly but inexorably.

Riddick made a noise deep in his throat, clenching, then opened and pushed back onto him, taking his cock fully in that single agonizingly slow thrust. Loki found himself panting, fingers digging into Riddick's hips as he settled, skin to skin.

He groaned. “Gods and _demons_ , Riddick, this is so perfect. I want, I _need_ this to last forever…”

A convulsive breath, a bass snarl. “Move.”

Loki laughed a little raggedly. “Are you ready for it?”

“ _Move_.”

“You tempt me to make you beg, Riddick.” He grinned at the resulting growl and dragged himself back until just the tip of his cock remained to stretch Riddick, pausing an aching instant before sliding back into him.

“More?” he gasped, trying for a light teasing tone, and probably failing.

“ _Move._ ”

Loki rocked into him slowly several times until Riddick snarled again, fingers knotting the bed linens. Loki breathed a delighted laugh and then they negotiated a rhythm, Loki grinding into him and Riddick pushing back to meet his thrusts, any grace forgotten as they surged together in a fermenting wildness that turned more and more savage.

Riddick was making guttural noises like they were being pulled from the depths of his being and the desperate demand of it, the _almost_ pleading, twisted Loki's delight nearly into delirium. About to climax, he reached down and around to grip Riddick's cock, jerking him roughly until he was rewarded with a hoarse feral cry and shuddering spasms as he came apart around Loki, who thrust brutally into the spasms, using them to milk his own climax and come as deeply into Riddick as he could push himself.

After, he slowly slid himself out with a sweet regret and pushed Riddick flat onto his stomach, laying beside him, lazily and possessively affectionate, rubbing gentle circles on Riddick's back. Riddick tolerated this for several deep breaths, working his fingers stiffly against the bed, before making an irritated shrugging motion, and shifting to get up.

Loki reached for his far shoulder and hauled him over onto his back instead, taking his mouth in a fierce kiss before sliding over him to straddle his stomach and holding Riddick's face in both hands. “How long do you need before we can do that again?” he demanded.

Riddick stared at him, then burst into a croaking laugh and shoved him off.

“I want a shower, civilized. Or a soak. I didn't see a tub in there.”

“Part of the floor moves aside. I'll show you. Riddick, I want that again. Now.”

Riddick grinned wryly, stretching, the last vestiges of irritation and discomfiture visibly settling back into his lazy feral ease of movement. “Pity it's my turn next.”

Loki pouted. “But I _want_ you.”

The predator flicked his gaze to focus on Loki, the flash of shined eyes making his breath catch.

“Show me the bath, godling,” he growled, rolling off the bed. “And stop whining,” he added, leaning over to cup Loki’s face. His thumb stroked over Loki’s mouth, lingering on a swollen place where Loki had bitten himself. “It makes me want to put you over my knee.”

Loki shoved his hand away with a smirk and got up to go expose the tub. He was amenable to letting the predator relax before Loki ambushed him.

 

 

Riddick settled deep into the steaming water, not trying to control the contented sigh. He remembered the bite on his shoulder when the water stung it. Other places just…ached a little, in a way he really hadn't felt since he was strong enough to decide his own partners. Funny thing was, he kind of liked it. Been a long time since he'd been on the receiving side and he hadn't ever been tempted the way this swish blue bastard drew him.

Not that he wasn't looking forward to pounding him into whimpers, but he _liked_ Loki’s strength and speed, his ruthlessness, and his attention to detail. And the pretty godling had needed that control just then, needed to stabilize. Needed to remember a secure base before Riddick could pull him off it into the woods to be hunted. And the smell of sex rising off him…

Loki came in from the kitchen with a small tray and set it beside the tub, revealing a pot and two cups, sweet spicy steam rising.

Riddick sighed. “Tea, civilized? Really?”

“Unlike you, beast, I prefer to savor my niceties whenever possible.”

“Makes you soft.”

Loki stood up, stretched, and ran his hands down his body. “Soft? This? You were moaning a different tune not so long ago.”

Riddick smiled lazily, then snatched out to grab Loki by the ankle. Loki eyed him warily, shifting his balance, waiting for an attack.

“Your instincts need sharpening, godling.” He let go of his ankle with a pat and settled back. “Coming in?”

Loki screwed his mouth to one side. “Not unless you move. I want to sit behind you while you're in this capricious mood.”

“Nope.” Riddick waved a gesture to the space in front of him.

 

 

Loki chewed his lip thoughtfully, gauging the predator. Riddick was seemingly relaxed in the tub, head back, eyes closed to mere slits, one leg stretched out and the other knee bent up, arms and hands laying easily along the sides of the bath. An obvious trap, and he didn't believe for a single moment that Riddick laid obvious traps. Or never just the one. It was clearly going to be an ambush, and he had merely to decide whether or not the pleasures would be worth the perils.  Damn. He was far more used to being the one setting the traps.

“You're overthinking this,” Riddick rumbled, eyes still mostly shut.

“That,” Loki said wryly, “I very much doubt.”

Riddick opened his eyes fully to flash at him. “Get. In. The. Bath.”

Loki shifted from foot to foot. “But…”

“ _Now_ , godling.”

 

 

Riddick suppressed his smile as Loki lifted his chin but stepped in to the bath, settling cautiously back against him with several glances over his shoulder.

“Now isn't this better?” Riddick said pleasantly.

“I would like to request that you permit me my tea before you try to drown me.”

Riddick flashed his feral grin. “Drowning’s not in the plan.”

“So you admit there is a plan.”

“I always have a plan.”

Loki started to get up and Riddick wrapped an arm around his stomach, laughing. He was too much fun not to play with. “Settle, civilized, and pour your tea. You're the one making this difficult.”

Loki sniffed primly, failing to relax. “I accept no blame whatsoever for what is clearly some ploy of yours.”

Riddick spread his hand over Loki’s stomach and pressed him back gently, his other hand lifting the godling’s chin so he could inhale along the length of Loki's neck. “Settle,” he murmured.

Loki exhaled, almost immediately relaxing back against him when his chin was lifted. Riddick rewarded that, rubbing Loki's stomach with a gentle motion, scenting along his throat and pressing a tiny nip into a pulse point before letting him go. “Now pour your tea.”

Loki took a long shaky breath before he reached for the exquisite pot, pouring elegantly into the fine cups. Riddick watched with appreciation, knowing he would never move with that graceful, casually effortless, refined flourish. Loki was truly deceptive. His build was more slender than Riddick's, but it wasn’t a lack of muscle. Riddick stroked Loki's thigh thoughtfully, evaluating. As if the muscles were more compact, not taking up the same amount of space. And he was _solid_ in a way that suggested his bones were anything but fragile. But for all that, he was elegant.

Loki offered him one of the dainty cups. Riddick took it with a slight curl to his lip and found it not at all frail. Like its owner then. He wondered if all Asgardians were so deceptive, or if he'd just been lucky.

He sipped at the tea. It was as insubstantial as he expected. A hint of sweet, a tease of spice, a warm wet swallow and gone. Probably a metaphor or something.

He realized Loki was shaking slightly against his chest.

“Something funny?” he asked wryly.

“I don't even need to see your face to sense patient contempt, Riddick. If you don't like the tea, don't feel you must drink it.”

Riddick took another sip. “It's not bad for hot water that's had a leaf dragged through it.”

Loki snorted and laid his head back against Riddick's shoulder. “This…” He exhaled gustily. “This situation is not anything I expected to encounter.”

“Mmm.”

A pause. “Riddick…”

“Mmm?”

Loki bit his bottom lip, fell silent, staring up at the ceiling. Clearly he'd got himself into another emotional tangle. Riddick restrained himself from rolling his eyes.  Time for another distraction. “You need me to get philosophical, godling?”

Loki laughed, startled. “And is that something to which you are inclined?”

“You pick things up here and there.”

Loki turned his head towards Riddick and leaned away a little to look at him. “I…am making no assumptions about your life. I simply have trouble picturing you formally studying philosophy.”

“Spent some time in slam with a philosopher for a cell mate. Talked with him a lot before he died. Some of it made sense.”

“What branch of philosophy?”

“Some kind of Buddhist. But he really had a hard-on for Stoicism.” Riddick laughed. “With a capital ‘S’.”

“He was in a prison?”

“Said it was the best place to practice.”

“Ah. So impart to me this wisdom.”

Riddick shrugged. “Probably easier to show you.”

“What? I…” Loki broke off as Riddick slid a hand down and wrapped gently around Loki's cock.

“Feels good?” Riddick asked, starting a gentle motion.

“Of course.”

“You like it.”

“…yes?”

Riddick grinned. “Now you're worried.”

“Of course I am! You're using my genitalia as part of a lesson!”

“You're not in the moment, you're thinking about the moment.”

“Riddick…”

He made his strokes a little firmer. “ _This_. Your breathing. My hand. The rhythm.”

Loki moaned, shifting his hips a little to press into Riddick’s grip. His eyes closed and his head settled back against Riddick's shoulder.

“There you are,” Riddick murmured. “That's the moment. Feel it.” He gently worked Loki for a few more strokes. “Ride it. If I stop, it'll still feel good.” His voice went quiet, slow. “Chase it, watch it, find out where it starts inside, where it comes from, ride it down, let it go…”

Riddick lifted his hand away and watched Loki frown, bite his lip, eyes shifting under the lids, and finally exhale a long sigh and open his eyes.

“All right,” Loki said. “Be in the moment. Fine. But you can't tell me you just stop thinking.”

“Nope. Thinking doesn't stop. It’s useful. Lets you interact with the world, not just react. Lets you plan. But it isn't real. Your body’s real. That's your anchor when your thoughts want to run wild.” He made a deep thoughtful sound. “If all you've got is the moment you're in, why waste it wanting it to be something else?”

“And this is your philosophy.”

“Half of it.”

“…what's the other half?” Loki asked warily, sitting up and turning to look at him.

“Being alive is better than being dead. Every situation changes but you can't take advantage of it if you're dead.” He laughed softly. “But don’t fear death either. It's just something that's gonna happen.”

Loki mulled that for several breaths. “So you live in the moment but don't get too attached to it, plan patiently when you’re in an untenable situation, and move hard and fast as soon you see an advantage. You are such a damnable _predator_ , Riddick!”

Riddick grinned and pulled Loki back against him, wrapping an arm around his stomach and trapping one leg under his. “Is this an _untenable_ situation, civilized?”

Loki gave him a reluctant smile. “I am chagrined to have to admit that I am surprised at how surprising you are.”

“That was twisty. So you've just been thinking of me as a good fuck.”

Loki convulsed in laughter. “Though you are indeed that! Ahhhh…” He exhaled a shaky breath, grinning, and settled back against Riddick's chest, head back, eyes closed. Riddick idly explored the muscular lines of Loki's abdomen, causing him to shift against him.

“Riddick…”

Riddick made an amused sound deep in his throat and nipped Loki's ear. “Yes?” he drawled.

“Why have you _never_ yet said my name?”

Riddick rested his chin on Loki's shoulder. “Who else would I be talking to?”

The expressive lips set stubbornly. “I want to hear you say my name.”

“Mmmmm.” Riddick splayed one hand over Loki’s stomach and the other came around to hold his jaw and arch his head back, exposing his throat again. He really was tempting in that vulnerable position. He set his mouth just against Loki's ear and breathed out gently, starting a series of shivers down Loki's frame.

“ _Loki_ ,” he growled softly, as deeply as possible.

Loki made a pleading sound, and Riddick slid his lower hand down to wrap around Loki's cock, laughing softly to find Loki's hands already there before him.

“Keep going, Loki. I’m watching. ”

Loki squirmed, moaning, twisting and stroking himself.

“Loki,” Riddick growled. “Give me your mouth.”

Loki turned his face blindly to meet Riddick's mouth, sucking long kisses from him between sighs and more moans and broken murmurs of what Riddick assumed was Asgardian.

Riddick teased at his nipples, pinching and pulling lightly, driving Loki to shudders as his hands moved more and more frantically on himself.

“Loki,” he growled. “Come the fuck right now.”

He climaxed with an open-mouthed cry, shaking as Riddick held him tightly and whispered his name over and over in his ear, cradling him through the aftershocks and meditatively nipping along his shoulder.

After his breathing had settled, Loki opened his eyes to stare at the ceiling. “Do…” He cleared his throat. “Do feel free _not_ to use my name in casual conversation.”

Riddick laughed behind him until Loki sniffed in mock offense and shakily sat forward to pour more tea.

“Ah, civilized,” Riddick chuckled. “I haven't laughed this much in…mmm, ever.”

“So pleased to be of service.”

Riddick slid a hand into Loki's hair and turned his head for a kiss. “You haven't been of service yet,” he growled with a feral grin. “So far I haven't been inside _you_ at all.”

“I…you…I don't really have much of a refractory period…”

Riddick grinned around a savage sound, pulling Loki's head back to display his throat. “You shift so easy, Loki. From pleading to control and back to pleading.” He bit tiny marks into the line of his throat beneath his ear.

“…I'm…adaptable...”

“Mmm,” Riddick agreed. “Mercurial.”

“That's…a fairly big word…for a beast.”

Riddick growled. “Are you provoking me?”

“…is it working?”

He laughed and pushed Loki forward in the tub, away from him. He figured the godling was ready. Firmly in the moment. Pliable.

“Out,” he ordered, snapping his teeth together in emphasis. “I need that bed of yours to fuck you properly, civilized.”

Riddick allowed Loki to insist on drying off first, but kept his hand tangled in Loki's hair as they stood in the warm air jets, impatient. As soon as they were tolerably dry, he steered Loki out into the main room and shoved him forward onto the bed.

Loki gave him a startled laugh and started to turn over. “Listen, beast…”

Riddick surged onto the bed to lean over him, hand pressed between his shoulder blades, looming. “Shh.” He sniffed at Loki’s throat, nudging his chin up to inhale along his jawline. “My turn. No words, Loki.” He lifted his hand up over Loki's mouth, holding him until Loki nodded slowly, his eyes wide.

Riddick growled approvingly and shifted his hand, moving his fingers over Loki's mouth in a light caress. Loki opened his mouth and took them in, sucking on them and sliding his tongue between and around them, eyes slipping shut.

He pulled his hand back and pressed Loki flat with his weight, settling against the lean length of him and taking a moment to savor the feel of him underneath, the long shaky breaths, the heat rising from him, the slight shifts of skin against skin. Riddick held him there with his body weight, scenting along his shoulder and the curve of his neck, running his tongue over the roof of his mouth to half-smell half-taste the intense fragrance of Loki’s arousal. He expected Loki to lose patience, but he relaxed instead, yielding, cheek pressed to the bed, his fingers sliding to tangle against Riddick's where his hands were braced.

Riddick rested his mouth against the side of Loki's neck, just behind his ear, baring his teeth and growling, tip of his tongue flicking out to taste his skin. Loki shivered underneath him and made a breathless pleading noise that went straight to Riddick's cock.

“Want me to fuck you into this bed?”

Loki moaned, spreading his legs apart in invitation.

“Mmm, that's good, Loki.” He was rewarded with another pleading sound.

Riddick slid off him to kneel between Loki's legs, smacking his ass. “Up on your knees.”

When Loki obediently pushed himself up to kneel, Riddick handed him the lubricant. “Slick yourself up,” he ordered, brushing his fingertips down Loki's spine.

Loki blushed, looking down for a moment, but lubricated the fingers of one hand and then elegantly folded forward to rest against the bed, knees spread wide and back arched. He reached back to work his fingers against his hole, displaying himself for Riddick as he slid them in and slicked himself, the wet sounds accompanied by his quiet muffled noises.

Riddick was breathless at the grace of it, the supple shift of joint and muscle dedicated to readying that exquisite body for his invasion.

“Enough,” he growled, and the fingers slid out, the arm coming to rest beside the fold of the body, the back arching just a touch more to offer easier entrance, and Riddick took a moment to wonder who had taught this volatile creature such perfect surrender.

Then he was pushing into that tight silky heat and Loki was moaning open-mouthed against the bed as he relaxed around Riddick's cock.

He groaned, hauling in a breath as Loki's heat and pheromones mixed with the smell of the warmed lubricant and sweat and the scent of their previous activities in the bed sheets, and it all tangled together in an almost overwhelming odor of sex.

When Loki made a wordless pleading noise, Riddick slammed into him once before regaining control. He held Loki's hips, breathing deeply for a moment. When he could think again, he reached down and pulled one of Loki's knees even further forward, then the other, pressing him down into a tightest possible fold while remaining deep inside that slick heat. He resettled his own knees on the outside of Loki's legs and leaned over him, covering him, enveloping him, weighing him down even further. Loki yielded, tucked into himself, arching as much as he could in that constriction to offer his throat and his ass.

Riddick braced himself on one hand, weight mostly on Loki, and reached the other to wrap around the front of Loki's throat, fingers and thumb covering the pressure points at both corners under Loki's jaw. Loki whimpered and Riddick moved his hips back, then thrust in hard and pressed the sides of Loki's throat, cutting off his air as he gasped. He released as he slid back, letting Loki suck a breath and then pressed again as he thrust. Loki shuddered and fell into the rhythm, gasping in as Riddick withdrew and moaning soundlessly as Riddick fucked back into him.

They rocked endlessly back and forth as Riddick fought back his climax, balls tight and hard as he drove into Loki's pliant heat, little half-strangled whimpers forced from Loki's wet mouth as Riddick found his sweet spot deep inside and angled each thrust to hit it. He knew Loki's cock was finding enough friction from the helpless sounds being forced from him.

When those sounds took on an urgent edge, Riddick nodded against his cheek. “Now, Loki,” he rasped, and let go of his throat to take a grip on his shoulder and pound into the convulsive shudders that racked the obedient body under him. He came with a harsh cry, rolling his hips into Loki’s spasming hole to ride the aftershocks, feasting on the sounds and the scents and the heat and the absolute perfection of the moment.

After, he slid reluctantly out of Loki, relishing the wet sound of it and the way Loki smelled of him, of his possession, and gathered the shaking form against him as he sat against the wall. He cradled Loki into his lap, stroking the curved length of his back and nuzzling the top of his head.

“Breathe, Loki,” he murmured. “So perfect.” He held him close and rubbed soothingly at his skin, pressing along the fibers of his muscles.

Loki held on to his arm and his shoulder, burying his face against Riddick's collarbone. Riddick could feel his mouth working, like he was trying to speak.

He felt a spear of pleasure up his spine, and he moved his lips against Loki's temple. “You can talk now, Loki. We're done.”

Loki shuddered and clutched at him. “No one,” he whispered. “No one. Has ever.” He took a deep breath and coughed lightly.

Riddick caressed Loki's throat and smiled down at him. He wanted a drink, and he wanted to get back into the bath very soon, but first, he'd need to deal with the inevitable reaction.

“ _Someone_ taught you that so-elegant submission,” he rumbled, kissing at his temple.

Loki blushed even as he stiffened in Riddick's embrace. “Youthful games, certainly,” he started.

“Mmm. Someone you cared for,” Riddick corrected. “But that's not here and now, is it?”

The moment hung, tense, as Loki wavered. Riddick took his chin and turned his face up for a kiss. “You were _perfect_ ,” he growled against the swollen, bitten lips. Loki relaxed into the kiss, opening his mouth to Riddick's demanding tongue. Riddick plundered his mouth for awhile before lifting his head to examine him, nodding approval of Loki's heavy-lidded ease.

He laid him on the bed before going to the kitchen to return with water. After Loki drank his fill, Riddick lifted him in his arms, laughing at the startled protest, and carried him into the bath, settling him on his knees in the tub.

“I like the filtering recirculation,” he murmured as he worked Loki open with his fingers, flushing him clean and thoroughly enjoying his embarrassed fuss.

Then he tucked Loki against him again as he settled back in the tub and relaxed in the hot water.

There was a long pleasant silence before Loki cleared his throat. Riddick couldn't help the grin that flashed across his face, but he hid it before Loki raised his head and contented himself with a raised eyebrow.

“I still mean to have you again,” Loki said firmly.

“Of course,” Riddick agreed gravely.

Loki narrowed his eyes at him and Riddick gave in to temptation and awarded him his most feral grin. “Balance, civilized. You need something for comparison.” He lightly brushed one of the bruises, finger-shaped, on Loki’s throat, and felt his cock twitch at the sign of _his_ mark on that elegant neck. This pretty godling needed balance, and Riddick was going to savor every shift, every switch, even the ones that would inevitably have him ass-up or mouth open for Loki's pleasure, for however long they had together. He cupped the back of Loki's head and kissed him with a slow demand that ended with him inhaling Loki's breath before nudging him back to settle against his chest.

 

 

Loki sighed as he settled back under Riddick's collarbone. He couldn't argue with how he felt: utterly relaxed, safe, oddly cherished. He'd been taken so far under he couldn't even remember the surface, and Riddick had guided him through that abyss and brought him back, had read every sound and twitch and need…

He'd played at submission in the past, learned the language and expression of it, how it could control those who sought to control him. He’d thought to use that against Riddick. And Riddick had effortlessly taken that key from his hand, and opened the door to Loki's desires, and Loki really needed to stop this mawkish internal rambling before it really got out of hand.

He pressed his lips together and felt the rumble of Riddick's amusement under his cheek.

“Thinking again,” the predator said, a hand stroking his back soothingly.

“Damn you and your philosophy. And your humor.” Loki wanted to hide his face against him and didn't, glaring at the wall instead.

“Civilized. Where are you right now?” Riddick asked, tapping Loki's forehead.

Loki frowned at him. “I don't think I understand what you're asking.”

Riddick sighed and picked up one of Loki's hands. He sucked a finger into his mouth, then pulled off it to bite the pad at the tip. Loki blinked at the flash of pain, a little surprised to see no blood.

“Physical sensation,” Riddick said.

“Yes?”

“It's real?”

“Yes?”

“What are thoughts?” Riddick stroked a finger across Loki's palm.

Loki closed his eyes. “This is one of those Zen things, isn't it.”

“Loki.” Riddick's voice was chiding, though a shade of affection overlaid it.

“A reaction to a physical sensation?”

Riddick smiled. “Not bad.” He twisted his fingers in Loki's hair and pulled his mouth close, kissing him slowly, an unhurried domination, until Loki sighed into his mouth, relaxing again.

Riddick moved his mouth away, studying Loki's face. “Are thoughts real?”

Loki blinked slowly. “This is a philosophical question and not a scientific one, correct?”

“Loki…”

“Riddick, I am not capable of debating philosophy with you when all I can think about are your hands and mouth on me!”

“Just my hands and mouth?”

Loki breathed a laugh and pushed away from Riddick, leaving some space between them. Riddick allowed it, watching him indulgently as Loki ran wet hands through his hair.

“Thoughts,” Riddick said, “trigger other thoughts that trigger more and more thoughts. They suck you in. You think that's what you are - some storm of thoughts that overwhelms everything.”

Loki opened his mouth and stopped. He looked at the finger that Riddick had bitten. “You bit me. It hurt. And then it went away.”

Riddick watched him.

Loki rubbed at the fingertip slowly while his eyes unfocused. “But the pain doesn't go away if I keep playing with it. I can choose to extend the pain or let it go.” Loki frowned, hunting through the idea. “I have a choice about the pain if I am aware of it.” He looked down at his fingertip. “And my thoughts…are like the physical sensations. I’m…I should be aware of the thoughts, as thoughts.”

Riddick pulled him back into a hard kiss as a reward, biting Loki's bottom lip to make it swell, make it more sensitive. “Your thoughts are not you,” he murmured against Loki's mouth.

“And you're using my body to show me that.”

“And to be in the moment,” Riddick agreed, turning Loki to fully face him, parting Loki's thighs over his hips as Loki draped his arms over Riddick's shoulders.

“What if I _want_ to think about this moment? To savor it? To burn it into my memory?” Loki pressed himself against Riddick's stomach, sliding his cock against Riddick's, moaning a little against Riddick's mouth as the friction wound a spring tightly in his stomach.

Riddick reached between them and wrapped a hand around both their cocks. “Stop making up stories about what's happening,” he growled and started an achingly slow stroke. “Just pay attention.” His breath caught when Loki dropped his head to nuzzle against the bite-mark on Riddick's shoulder. Then Loki fitted his teeth into the marks and bit down again, snarling against Riddick's skin.

“Stop teaching. I'm right here,” Loki demanded.

Riddick laughed and squeezed his hand tightly around them both. Loki cursed and thrust against the tightness, fingers digging into Riddick's skin. Riddick watched him, heavy-lidded, with a lazy smile, as Loki's head dropped back and his mouth opened, panting as he worked himself against Riddick's hand and cock.

Just as Loki sucked in a breath before coming, Riddick pulled his head down and covered Loki's mouth with his own, pulling in Loki's cries as Loki clutched frantically at his shoulders, both of them shuddering as Loki climaxed. Riddick let Loki slip down against him, back to curl into his lap and breathe.

It was several breaths before Loki realized that the hardness against his side meant Riddick hadn't finished.

His eyes flew open. “You didn't…”

“Shh. I'm savoring it.”

Loki laughed helplessly. “Riddick.”

“I don't have to get off, you know.”

“Why wouldn't you?” Loki was curious, and leaned away to stare at him.

“Mmm. Could be lots of reasons. Reminder to stay in the moment. Plans for later. Fetish for self-denial.”

Loki snorted. “And why is it really?”

Riddick smiled at him lazily and reached out to brush his thumb across Loki's mouth. Then he set his hands on the edge of the tub and lifted himself out to sit on the edge, spreading his knees and giving Loki a very significant look.

Loki blinked at him for a moment, watching the water sheet down Riddick's warm skin, leaving him covered with wet trails and drops. The muscles in his thighs and abdomen shifted under the slick skin, his cock swollen and dripping. He leaned forward to run his tongue over the tip, tasting water and Riddick, and heard the deep pleased sound through his ears as well as felt it against his mouth. Oh.

“Good thing you pick things up quick,” Riddick said. His voice was so low and rough, Loki felt it like a hand stroking every part of him that was capable of arousal.

Well. Loki had picked up an assortment of skills over his lifetime and now seemed like an excellent time to show off.

He started out slow, teasing with the tip of his tongue, lightly stroking with fingertips along Riddick's length, cupping and toying with his balls. Riddick shifted his hips, watched him with narrowed eyes. Loki knew the moment Riddick realized what the game was. A small low noise escaped him as Loki pressed the skin behind his balls and Loki leaned back, hands dropping to rest on his own thighs as he watched Riddick.

A slow smile from Riddick and a nod. Loki leaned in again, taking Riddick in his mouth and using his hands to tease and tug, pinch and pull. Every time Riddick made a noise, Loki moved away, waiting until Riddick's breathing steadied again and he nodded.

Loki edged him over and over, Riddick cooperating by letting a noise slip whenever he got close. Loki could tell Riddick was getting closer and closer by the almost uncontrollable movements of his hips and thighs, the harshness of his breathing. Finally, Riddick held the back of Loki's head and groaned, writhing under Loki's hands and mouth. Loki took a breath and pushed all the way down on Riddick's cock, fingers rubbing around the base and his lips, before pulling back to suck at the head, tongue teasing the sensitive spot under the crown, his hand stroking the shaft in slow fierce pulls until Riddick came almost silently, arched back, holding his breath behind bared teeth to drag out the pleasure.

Then Loki pulled Riddick back down into the tub and settled on his side against him, offering up his mouth for Riddick to kiss and lick into, slow and sated.

They lingered in the warm water that was endlessly filtered, re-warmed, and recirculated. Loki had always craved luxuries like this. A perfect bath. Fine fabrics against the skin. The velvet burn of a well-aged liquor on his tongue and down his throat, pooling to warmth in his stomach. The soothing comfort of body to body contact after sex. Power, taken and given, traded, negotiated. He lazed there, cataloguing his bruises, testing them with fingertips and nails.

Riddick lazily watched him, faint smile tugging at his mouth. “Food.”

“Is that a request or an order?”

Riddick's mouth moved, one corner at a time, into that feral grin. “Whichever way means you go make some and I relax here.”

Loki made an exasperated noise and climbed out of the tub, ignoring Riddick's appreciative stare and the fingertips trailing down his flank. “Are you ever going to get out?”

“I'm warm and clean,” Riddick said, stretching like the great cat he really was under the skin. “Sex, bath, food.” He shrugged, clearly indicating his lack for nothing, and sprawled in the bath, gaze challenging Loki to make something of it.

Loki made the same exasperated noise and stepped over to dry off before going to the kitchen. He played the exasperation up, rattling packages and dishes loudly to cover the strange surge of contentment rising in his chest, knowing Riddick wouldn't be any more fooled by it than he himself was, and oddly content with that as well.

“Less thinking, more food,” Riddick called in a mocking bass rumble through the open bathroom door.

“Drown,” Loki snapped back.

The predator’s easy chuckle proved contagious and Loki stopped fighting a smile.

He still wanted to watch at least one world burn, but perhaps he'd have a companion fireside to appreciate all the pretty colors.

 

 

It was, of course, the middle of the night when the proximity alarm went off. Loki opened his eyes, felt fury clawing up his throat in reaction to the fear it tried to smother.

Riddick rolled up onto an elbow, glancing at the ship controls. “Incoming?”

Loki nodded, controlling his voice tightly. “Just entering orbit.”

Riddick padded naked over to the controls, tapping at a couple. Loki frowned. “I didn't unlock those controls.”

Riddick flashed that feral grin and continued working until a display popped up with five ship  identification numbers. Loki watched him straighten, breathe out once, very deliberately, and then roll his shoulders and relax.

“Mercs,” Loki said flatly.

Riddick turned his head slightly towards Loki, still watching the display.

“And you've just made some unilateral decision that you expect me to accede to without arguing.”

Riddick turned to look at him fully, shined eyes flashing once. “Loki.”

“No!” he shouted, pushing himself off the bed to his feet.

“Loki.” His name in Riddick's mouth was a caressing growl.

Loki stared at him for a moment, then took a deep breath and straightened, crossing his arms as the only defense he was going to allow himself. “All right. Explain to me.”

“They know I'm here. They want me. They don't know about you.”

Loki sneered. “There is no band of humans that could take and keep me, even long enough to turn me over to my ‘family.’”

“It's not just humans that become Mercs.”

Loki opened his mouth and shut it again. “You’re trying to protect me.”

“They can't keep me for long. I'll just get off the bus somewhere else. But if they know about you, they'll pass along word. You'll be hunted. Right now, you're free.”

“This ship could destroy them easily.”

Riddick nodded. “But not all at once. They'd get a signal out and other Mercs would follow. Only way to break the trail is for me to go with them.” He bared his teeth. “Not that it's gonna be easy on them.”

Loki turned away, eyes unfocusing to stare at nothing.

Riddick set a hand on his shoulder and pulled him around to hold his face in both hands.

Loki's eyes flashed red angrily. “Don't coddle me,” he snapped.

Riddick surveyed him for a moment, not moving his hands. Then he leaned in for a fierce, possessive kiss, not allowing Loki to push away, finally biting Loki's bottom lip and drawing blood before gentling to suck at it, thumbs caressing Loki's cheekbones and stroking lightly beneath his eyes.

Loki felt the rage being displaced by an incipient swell of grief.

“Hey,” Riddick murmured against his mouth. “We're not dead. This isn't over.”

“Did you miss the part where you're nobly leaving me?”

Riddick laughed softly. “‘Nobly.’ What the fuck do you think I am?”

Loki closed his eyes. “This is your story, Riddick. How is this not you riding out alone to defend the helpless prince? Who is _not fucking helpless_ , by the by.”

“No. I don't think this is some twisted fairy tale, even if you are some kind of demigod princeling.” Riddick licked at the bite on Loki's lip before sucking it back into his mouth to worry at it. Loki moaned, holding on to Riddick's shoulders.

Riddick leaned back a little to look at him. “I don't believe in happily ever afters. That's not my life. But as long as we're not dead, Loki…”

Loki said nothing, eyes bright, face expressionless.  Riddick let him go, fingers trailing, and turned to dress. He wrapped himself in his furs and spared him one last silver glance before he slipped the goggles on and stepped out the door.

Loki watched the ensuing fight and Riddick's capture with his hands clenched so tightly his nails drew blood from his palms. He didn't shut down the display until all five Merc ships had left the system.

His ship echoed with the memory of rough whispers and everything smelled of sex and Riddick. Loki sat in the pilot’s chair motionless for hours, replaying all the moments, wanting, with a pain so fierce it finally bent him double, the moment he was in to be other than it was.

After an endless time lost in speechless animal misery, he finally remembered to straighten up and breathe. The place where Riddick had bit his lip beat with his pulse. “No,” he found himself saying out loud. “No. I will damn well have a happily ever after if I have to destroy the universe to get it.” He began the process of waking the ship from its shielded sleep.


	2. In Limbo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When all you've got available is phone sex...

Cryosleep never takes Riddick all the way down and out the way it's supposed to. He can't move his body, open his eyes, breathe, but his mind never turns off. Leaves him lots of time to plan, normally. This time he can't stop thinking about Loki.

It’d been at least a few weeks, but in the darkness, he easily paints the long lean lines of that body, spread naked across the bed. Loki would be, should be, asleep on his back, one knee bent to the side and one arm flung carelessly across the sheets, palm up, fingers lightly curled. Face turned to the side, a slight wicked smile still curving those reddened and swollen lips. Bruises high on his throat would highlight the sharp corners of his jaw, the side of his neck showing a trail of bite marks down to his shoulder. Riddick had left marks down the length of Loki's body, from collarbones to hips, down the insides of his thighs.

Riddick sighs and lets the image go before he starts to think about Loki's cock, trying to review his plan again, testing all the pieces and possibilities he could think of.

_Are you thinking of me, Riddick?_

What…the actual fuck?

_You are, aren't you? Are you remembering? Are you **picturing** me?_

Riddick is pretty sure he isn't insane. A bad reaction to cryosleep drugs? That'd be new, but…

_I know you can hear me, my beast. Are you in transit?_

He honestly isn't sure what the hell to do with this situation.

**Loki?**

_Ahhhhh, there's my beast. Humans travel in cryosleep, yes? But you're aware._

**Always have been. How're you doing this?**

A soft, wicked chuckle. _Call it magic._

Riddick lets a deep doubtful noise rumble through his mind.

_You know I'm coming after you, don't you?_

**Don't.**

Riddick can’t see him, but he can practically _feel_ the grin spread across Loki's face at that.

_Without you **here** , without you able to enforce your wishes, whatever makes you think I will obey?_

**Loki…**

_And I think I am offended by how little you think of my capabilities. Do you imagine I'm planning to engage in some showy shootout, blazing my location across the heavens?_

**…yes?**

Loki laughs. _I admit that I’m prone to grand gestures but that would be foolhardy even for me. Ah, Riddick. I won't have you nobly sacrificing yourself. And…_

A long pause.

 **I didn't want to leave** , Riddick finally says.

_I know that. I **know** it. But…_

**You were angry. At me.**

_Oh, there was definitely anger. Just…not just._

Another long pause, broken again by Riddick.

**You gonna tell me?**

_Hmm. No, I think not just yet. But I am minded to torment you for awhile._

**Godling, I don't know how you're doing this, but I'm in cryo. I can't see anything, I can't move. All I can do is hear you. Not gonna be much torment listening to your dulcet tones.**

Loki laughs delightedly. _Then let my dulcet tones lull you while I describe to you exactly what I'm doing to myself right now._

Cold splash of realization. Amused horror. **Fuck. Loki, _no_. **

Loki's mental tone drops to that wicked whisper. _Oh, fuck, Riddick, **yes**._

**This is cruel.**

_…yes?_

Riddick can't help the laugh that bubbles up. **So you think you're in control right now?**

_Are you considering the fact that I can physically take satisfaction with my hand and you are hanging helpless in black limbo? Because, if so…_

Riddick drops to the lowest rumble he can manage to convey. **Loki.**

_Is that supposed to persuade me **not** to do this? Because I assure you that you are only assisting with the process. Ah yes, there's the exasperated pause while you try to think of some way of stopping me. _

**Dammit, civilized…**

_Not so civilized right now, without my predator to play with. I'm not feeling civilized at all, as a matter of fact. I'm feeling rather vengeful and bloodthirsty. They laid hands on you and **you allowed it.** You allowed them to beat you down and take you prisoner. And I have been without you for weeks. I am not at all pleased by this. _

**So you _are_ mad at me. **

_A little, I admit. But I would rather take your captors to pieces to soothe my disquiet._

**I can't argue with that. But if you…**

_Your attempt at distraction has failed, my beast. I am still going to torment you._

**Mmm.** A sigh. **And if I asked you not to?**

_Hmm. No. Possibly if you begged…_

**_Not_ ** **gonna happen.**

_A challenge! Now I definitely have something to work towards._

**Loki!**

A pause, then a long sigh. _You left so many marks on me but they've all healed and you aren't here to renew them. I'm touching my throat right now, just under my jaw, and remembering how you stopped my breath, my voice. I wore the evidence of your fingers for days, Riddick. When I missed you, I'd press at them whilst I stroked myself._

**Loki…**

Loki's low voice turns a little ragged. _It's not the same, it doesn't feel the same, when I hurt **myself** …_

 **No.** In _this_ , Riddick had all the authority. **You don't get to play those games without me.**

Loki's ragged breaths soften slowly into a more regular rhythm.

**You hear me, civilized?**

A whisper. _I hear you._

**Hard line, Loki. That part is only for me.**

Deep steadying breaths.

 **Loki** , he said, chiding. **Answer me.**

A hitch in the breathing, a pause, then one long unsteady inhale.

Ah, Riddick thought. Damn the Mercs’ timing, anyway. Too much uncertainty left there. He let threat leak into his tone. **If you don't answer me, godling, I will take it out of your skin in strips the next time you're spread out for me.**

An almost silent laugh was his answer, then a deliberately light tone. _Then you're counting on a next time._

Riddick lets an amused contempt shade his reply. **Did you hit your head, civilized? No point in a plan otherwise.** He snaps out a command. **Now answer me.**

_…yes._

**Only for me.**

_Yes._

**All right then.** Softer, caressing. **I want you in that bath. Now.**

_I…_

**_Now_ ** **, godling.**

A huff, a ghost of a laugh. _I'm going, o my beast._

After a moment, Loki sighs and Riddick imagines his head resting back against the edge of that tub as he settles in the water. **Too warm?**

_I wasn't the one stuck on a frozen planet for years. Also, as a jötunn I naturally prefer cooler environments._

**Yeah, is that gonna be your excuse for all the sweating you did?**

Riddick tried not to chuckle at the offended exasperation he can picture.

**I'd be pulling you back against me in that tub right now to soothe you.**

_…and trying not to laugh, doubtless._

**Why would I try not to laugh?**

A huff. _Why am I in this bath right now, beast?_

**Because I told you to be.**

Riddick listens carefully for the almost silent syllables that are probably obscenities and feels the ghost of a feral grin when he hears them. **When were you gonna start tormenting me, civilized?**

_You don't get to **give** me control right now, Riddick._

**I just did, though.** He amps up the mockery, even mimicking Loki's clipped but rich speech patterns. **I've begun to wonder about the appeal of your habit of  invalid reasoning.**

A pause and then Loki is laughing helplessly. If the edge of it is a little frantic, Riddick lets it go without comment.

_Ahhhhhhhhh. Riddick. My gods, Riddick. How can they think you're a simple murderer?_

Riddick makes a deep noise of amusement.

 _Do you **want**_ _them to underestimate you?_

**They should fear me. Better if they're not confused.**

_I am a master of deception, and yet you see through it. I thought at first it was just because you **were** a simple, ultra-focused predator…_

Riddick makes an exaggerated soothing sound. **You were tired and stressed out when we met.**

A pause. _You're doing it again!_

Riddick laughs.

_Stop playing with me!_

**Really?** Riddick draws it out into a doubtful drawl.

_No! Yes! Damn you, stop playing with me as if I were prey!_

**Ahhh. That's a pretty specific request, godling.**

An exasperated huff, then more laughter. Riddick can picture the long legs stretching out in the bath, the pale shoulders relaxing, the curve of that elegant neck…

_I'm touching my mouth with my fingertips. A little press where I've been biting my lip, and now my mouth is opening. But I'm moving my fingers away and down the length of my throat as a tease. I can't help the little discontented noise, but now I'm touching my collarbones, tickling at the sensitive hollow under one where you sucked a bruise that made me cry out in helpless pleasure as you held me still for it._

If he were capable of a physical sound, Riddick imagines he would sound like he has just been hit in the gut.

_My head is tilting to one side as my eyes close. You always demand access to my throat, my shoulders. You drag air against my skin when you inhale, and you leave cold wet trails from your tongue as you taste me, and then you bite as if you need to hold me in place, as if I'd ever move away from what you're doing._

Riddick can feel, can _remember_ that tension in his jaw, holding on just tightly enough to taste, and not to devour. He growls.

_Ahh, those growls. I can feel that all the way down my spine, a frisson that curves along my ribs and burrows into my stomach. It makes me shift my hips and move one hand down to a nipple. I'm resisting the urge to press them, to pinch them for that sharp pleasure that arrows down. Instead, I'm lightly brushing over them, more tease than touch, a promise rather than a demand._

Riddick growls again, wanting to demand.

_You're making my hips twitch every time you do that. A little hopeful press backwards, an offering._

Riddick groans, wanting.

_My other hand strokes down my stomach and settles at my hip, laying my fingers over where you held me, echoing the marks of your fingers that you once left there. I press down but I haven't the strength to hold myself in place, and there's no sweet ache from the bruising._

**Loki… _fuck,_ Loki. **

_I tease along the inside of my thigh. I'm not touching my cock. I'm avoiding it, though even the caress of the water as I move in it is becoming torture. I tuck one hand beneath a knee, lifting my leg, bringing my knee close to my chest, displaying myself, offering myself. My head falls back and I'm moaning out loud, waiting for your approval, your permission._

Riddick wants to hit something, slam his head back against something solid. He gathers the tatters of his control.

 **Soap** , he manages to grit out. **Use that damn soap, Loki.**

 _Ohhhhh, my gods, Riddick._ A shaky laugh. _I'll never be able to wash again._

**Soap.**

A shuddering breath. _I'm rubbing the soap in the hand that's not holding my knee to me. My fingers are slippery and I bring them down to tease where you claimed me. I circle myself there a few times, feeling the twitch at the entrance, wanting to open, to accept the intrusion. My cock throbs against my arm, my thumb pressing up against my balls._

 ** _Fuck_** , **Loki. You're _killing_ me. **

_Now I'm pressing two fingers into myself, savoring the stretch, the press, the intimacy of this invasion._

Riddick wants to pant, wants to feel the hungry suck of too little air reaching into his lungs.

 _I'm pressing deep into myself, working my fingertips, curling in on myself as I stretch, searching for that one place you reach with such ease…_ Loki moaned obscenely. _There. Oh, there._

**Don't touch your cock, Loki.**

A whine, a whimper. _Riddick…_

**Not yet. Breathe.**

Loki gasps. _Hard to breathe. Feels so good._

**Keep going, but you don't get to come until I say.**

_I'm…I'm slowing down now. Too close. I…I can feel my own pulse around my fingers._

**Breathe.** Riddick counts Loki's breaths, since he's not currently breathing himself.

Loki settles back into a calmer pace. _Every breath shifts my fingers, Riddick. Every moan makes a vibration I can feel. Everything you say causes me to clench around my fingers. I ache to move but I'm holding myself here, open. Rocking on the edge of coming._ His breathing increases, urgency starting to lace his voice. _I ache to have you buried in me, filling me, stretched around your cock while you hold me in place._

If he were awake and restrained, Riddick knew he would be throwing himself against whatever was holding him.  **Slow down again, Loki,** he manages.

_Don't…don't want to…_

**Loki.**

An anguished noise. _Please. Please, Riddick. Please let me…_

**Shhhh. Loki. Slow down.**

He can picture Loki's teeth in his bottom lip, head down, body shaking.

**Shhhh. I've got you, Loki. Remember my hand at the back of your neck. I'd be rescuing your lip, licking at the bloody spot.**

_Riddick…_

**Shhhh.**

_Oh gods, I'm so close._

Riddick drops to a whisper. **Almost. Almost, Loki. Breathe.**

He counts six long shaky breaths from Loki. _My fingers are no substitute for being fucked by you, the way you push inside me, the way you fuck me open until all I can do is gasp between your thrusts, beg you for release, hold on while you take me apart…please…Riddick…_

Riddick feels like the universe should shred to pieces around his tension, the impossible quivering strain of his ache to reach out, to hold, to roar and to claim.

_Riddick…please…_

He makes a guttural noise, barely recognizable as a word.

**Now.**

And Loki comes silently, his throat closing on words and air. Riddick can _feel_ the strain in his chest as Loki fights _not_ to breathe, his mouth open in a cry robbed of sound, shuddering as waves of pleasure so sharp it's indistinguishable from pain wrack Loki's body. And Riddick feels the release, too, the agonizing knot slipping loose, waves receding to leave him hanging wearily in limbo.

 **Holy fucking murderous _fuck,_** he whispers.

Loki sucks in air, coughing as he tries to laugh and breathe at the same time. _What **are**_ _you, Riddick?_

**I…grateful, I guess.**

_What?_

**I figured I'd be stuck for weeks in cryo with permanent blue balls.**

Loki loses it, is just gone, laughing so hard he chokes.

Riddick’s stuck in cryo. He can't grin, can't feel his heartbeat shift, can't wrap around his gasping godling and try to help him catch his breath, can't soothe him, dry him off, and curl around him in bed. But he can talk him through that, get him to sleep, and then have time to figure out what to do about this new twist in his life.

**Can you move yet?**

_I…maybe. Am I **allowed**?_

Riddick huffs a laugh. **Can't have you drowning. Don't sleep in the tub.**

_Bastard predator. I'm crawling out of the bath._

**Doubt it. Bet you're posing on the edge, waiting until you're steady enough to walk. Don't want to ruin your image.**

A slight huff of laughter. _I'm going to bed wet._

**Mmm. All right. I'm sure wet sheets’ll be real comfortable later.**

Riddick listens for the string of Asgardian obscenities and wants to grin so badly. **Dry off, civilized** , he orders.

He can picture Loki's glare, then his eyes closing while he struggles with his nearly instinctual rebellion. Riddick's frankly amazed Loki lets him take him so far under. But there's an instinctual submission there, too, and doesn't that make for a fucking twisted mindset.

**And don't tell me you hate me. Words don't mean a damn thing from you right now.**

_That's not in the least an offensive statement._

Riddick laughs. **Am I always going to end up with my hand twisted in your hair, forcing you to do what we both want?**

_I'm fucking well drying off. No violence necessary at the moment, thank you so very much._

Riddick makes the approving noise start all the way from his belly. **That's my Loki.**

_Your Loki? **Your** Loki?_

**Mine.**

_Oh we will so have words about this, my beast._

**Bed.**

_Bleeding **gods** , Riddick._

**Bed.**

_I'm in the godsforsaken bed._

**Sleep.**

A very put-upon sigh. And then a long pause.

_We'll lose contact when I fall asleep. And…_

**You're exhausted. I can hear it. You can't do this very often, can you?**

Silence.

**Sleep, Loki.**

_Next time…_

**Next time, you'll tell me how you fuck me until I can't put words together.**

_I fucking well will._

Riddick laughed softly. **Don't fuck up my plan.**

Loki's words were growing indistinct. _Fuck your plan._

Riddick smiled and hung in his empty limbo, listening to the silence closing in around him until he knew he was alone again.


	3. Spread Thin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki finds his way back to Riddick...after some delay...
> 
> Also, here's where we go off-canon (as much as we ever were on-canon) for Loki.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fair warning for some light knifeplay, a little blood...all consenting, if a little twisted : )
> 
> But this is Riddick, surely you knew sharp edges were going to come into play at some point...

As Thanos’ fist closed around his throat, Loki panicked and _reached_ in a way he'd never managed before, felt the universe open behind him like a door being pushed open. Or the rind of an overripe fruit splitting under pressure. He actually heard and felt the sickening crunch of his own neck being snapped but he was already shoving frantically backwards and away into a multicolored, screaming chaos that tore and shredded at him, as if his life were leaking out great rents in his flesh, his mind fraying at the edges in the impossible twisting gale.

Loki was a survivor and this, this place, whatever it was, was not survivable. He _reached_ again, desperately flailing, felt an impossibly tiny line against his fingers, grasped it, hauled himself along it, looking for…

…there. A quiet darkness, a sense of presence. A familiar presence.

_Riddick._

A pervasive rumble shook the darkness. “Loki.”

Loki took a deep breath, feeling…insubstantial.

_I don't think I'm really here._

“In my mind? Better not be, godling.”

Loki barked a laugh. _I rather hope I'm still alive._

“Mmm. There some doubt?”

_It's been a bit of a…busy spell lately. Wait, you're not in cryosleep?_

An amused noise. “No.”

_It…has been some time._

“Yeah.”

The tone was neutral but Loki felt a pang of something that resembled remorse as he rubbed at his tenuous face with ghostly hands. _My life became extremely complicated…_

“Not looking for excuses.”

_Perhaps not, but you are certainly due explanations._

“Been pretty busy myself.”

_Riddick._

An exasperated huff of breath. “I wasn't waiting around for rescue like some goddamn princess, civilized.”

Loki couldn't resist the tendril of curiosity that reached out. It brushed a barrier that tasted strongly of Riddick's wry amusement with more than a hint of razors. _You're not asleep. Not in cryosleep. But not quite awake._

“Meditating.”

Loki blinked. _I didn't think your philosophy extended so far as such practices._

“Like sharpening a knife.”

 _No wonder I can_ ** _hear_** _you._ Loki's curiosity approached the barrier again. He touched gently, stroked his fingers over the surface, pulled away scoured and bloody fingertips.

_You're angry with me._

“Not…exactly. Mmmm. Maybe a little.”

_You'd have every right._

_“Every_ right?”

Loki laughed quietly. _All right, perhaps not every right._

A deep noncommittal noise. Loki sighed, rubbing at his face again. He was adrift, hollow, and starting to feel a painful need for…something.

What he truly wanted to do was let Riddick see the past, show him what had kept Loki from coming to him. Loki hated the itch of guilt, the admission that he had allowed himself to get entangled in other things, but this was his predator. Riddick was the other end of a connection that had kept him…well, _living_ rather begged the question, didn't it?

He could feel Riddick waiting. Not even in expectation of anything, simply at rest while allowing Loki his struggle.

Loki pressed his forehead to the barrier, ignoring the rough bite of the surface. He opened his thoughts and offered Riddick all he'd lived through: being swept up in Thanos’ schemes, the mad attack on Earth, imprisonment, his mother’s death, the destruction of the only home he'd known, the question of his own death.

From this perspective, every choice he'd made seemed pointlessly insane and yet he remembered being driven through it all as if spurred, nearly helpless in the twining threads of some fate beyond his control. With a shock, he realized he'd barely even thought of Riddick during that whole time and he was _baffled_ by that realization. And then he was _angry._ If felt like someone else, something else, had controlled his strings, as if he had been danced along the path to Ragnarök and death like an obedient puppet.

From Riddick there was a lengthy assessing pause. Then he felt a sensation like a hand cupping the back of his neck, fingers caressing. He was pulled gently through Riddick's barrier, feeling it fade as he passed.

He saw New Mecca, Crematoria, the Necromongers.

 _You're ruling the Necromonger fleet,_ he said in disbelief.

A shimmering sparkle of amusement from Riddick. “Seemed the thing to do at the time.”

_Necromongers, Riddick?_ **_Really_ ** _?_

“You're one to complain.”

_…you've a point._

A long quiet moment, their thoughts laying quiescent against each other, breathing into the same rhythm.

_You're not human._

“No. Furian.”

_The Necromongers say they destroyed your world._

“That's what they say.”

_I wonder that they could destroy a world filled with those like you._

“Doubt I'm typical.”

Loki laughed quietly. _I would fear a universe that contained an entire world of your kind, were you typical._

Riddick made an amused noise and they let the silence return. It couldn't last, not with the strange hollow gnawing under his skin, an echo of a sourceless hunger that hovered in the distance somewhere beyond them.

 _“Are_ you dead?” Riddick's low question broke the fragile peace.

**_No_ ** _._

Loki had felt the darkness under Riddick's quiet question, like an abyss yawning open beneath a thin sheet of ice. And his answer was instinctual, an absolute denial against even the possibility. An abrupt certainty.

Riddick exhaled evenly. “All right.”

_We forged ourselves a connection, my beast. A link. When I was lost, I knew I could reach for you. I'm not dead. I'm just not…quite in the same place as you. At the moment._

“I can see you now, a little. Like a ghost.”

 _I feel like a ghost._ He reached out into the darkness with insubstantial fingers, feeling a sudden contact with warm skin stretched over the hard curve of muscle atop bone. A shoulder. Riddick's shoulder. He curved his fingers over the top of it, traced Riddick's collarbone with his thumb through a thin sleeveless shirt. He couldn't see anything but Riddick felt solid against his hand. He was a little startled at the raw craving he felt for the touch of Riddick's skin. _A hungry ghost._

“Mmm. You don't feel so ghost-like.”

_But you_ **_can_ ** _see me?_

“More like an empty you-shaped space. Hints. But I can definitely feel you.”

_I can't see anything. But I can definitely feel_ **_you_ ** _…_

He caressed the side of Riddick's face, savoring the slightly stubbled roughness, brought his other hand to touch Riddick's mouth. Riddick’s lips quirked a bit, opened, tongue flicking out to lick along the length of his fingers.

 _…you're kneeling_. Loki felt the rush of blood to his groin.

Again the quirk of a smile against his fingers. “I was meditating.”

_Bleeding_ **_gods_ ** _, Riddick._

“Doing something for you?”

_…you always have._

He felt Riddick's head cock to one side. “Gonna do something with it?”

Loki dropped to his own knees, straddling Riddick's thighs, resting his forehead against Riddick's. Those predator’s hands came up to settle at Loki's waist. Loki felt as if he'd been blindfolded, but all his other senses were painfully alive. And right now, he just _needed_.

_Have you privacy for awhile, o my beast?_

“Sure. Always do after I have to kill a couple of them.”

Loki laughed and pressed his mouth to Riddick's, kissed him demandingly, pushing his mouth open, licking into him to taste every part of that wet heat. He held Riddick's face still, forcing him to accept the assault as his thumbs pressed at the hinges of Riddick's jaw. Riddick kept his hands at Loki's waist, opening his mouth, not in the least submissive, but letting Loki in, letting him set the pace.

Abruptly, it wasn't enough. Loki pulled away and rose to his feet, tugging Riddick up as well.

 _Strip_ , he said. He rested his fingertips against Riddick's skin and followed his movements, walking around him, pausing to lick at bared skin as Riddick pulled his clothing off, but never losing contact. He savored the smooth shift of muscle under his fingers, lingered over scars old and new, tasted the faint salt against his tongue. He flattened his palms on Riddick's back, fingers pressing against the bunching of the muscles over the scapulae as Riddick worked at his belt and trousers, leaning in to lick and drag his teeth up his spine to the crease of skin that marked where Riddick's skull met his spine. He bit lightly there and Riddick caught his breath and then dropped his head forward slightly, kicking his trousers away and widening his stance a little, hands at his sides. Loki pressed his hips against Riddick’s backside, held his shoulders and opened his mouth over the nape of Riddick's neck, sucking blood to the surface. Riddick made a sound deep in his throat and reached back to hold Loki’s hips.

Loki turned Riddick's face enough to kiss him. It was awkward for Riddick but he relaxed into the position, chuckled against Loki's mouth. “Too solid for a ghost. And you're not wearing anything, ghostling.”

_Never say that I don't gift you with anything._

Loki was rewarded with Riddick's laugh, settling a hand over his belly to feel it. It felt so good that Loki had to circle him again, touching and licking and biting at him. Riddick stood mostly still for it, shifting slightly and making small, breathy, close-mouthed noises.

 _You are indulging me_ , Loki said as he ran his thumb over Riddick's nipple, his other hand teasing around the base of Riddick's cock.

“I suffer so nobly,” Riddick murmured roughly.

Loki ran his hands down Riddick's arms to where he was making fists over and over. He moved around behind him and took Riddick's hands, pulling them behind. He pressed them together and, after a pause, Riddick clasped them together, settling his shoulders and resting his twined fingers against the small of his back. Loki moved around to the front again to claim Riddick's mouth in a hungry kiss.

_You're going to let me take my pleasure of you?_

“Of the two of us, I think you've had a worse day.”

Loki laughed so hard his knees nearly gave out and he hung onto Riddick's shoulders for support.

“Breaking the mood, ghostling.”

 _Ahhhhhh. We can't have that._ Loki leaned into him for another kiss, then sank his teeth into Riddick's lower lip, pulling a bit, drawing blood.

Riddick sucked in a breath, his shoulders under Loki's hands making an aborted convulsive movement away then back again as Loki sucked at the blood. “Fuck, Loki, are you planning to eat me?”

“I need to taste you,” Loki said, the blood on his tongue sparking an odd desperation. He slid to his knees and cupped Riddick's balls, taking a moment to inhale all the muskiness and heavy scent before sucking at the loose skin covering them.

Riddick grabbed his head, forcing him to stop. “Do not bite me there. I don't care what you need.”

Loki laughed softly, touching Riddick's hands. Riddick let him go, body shifting as he warily tucked his hands back behind him again.

Loki touched his tongue-tip to the base of Riddick's cock and followed it up to tease under the head. Riddick took a deep breath, his thighs flexing under Loki's hands. Loki opened his mouth over Riddick's cock and took him deep enough to hit the back of his throat, Riddick's hips shifting as he worked to keep from thrusting. His hands stayed behind his back, even when Loki moaned around the heavy shaft filling his mouth. Loki sucked at him, savoring the fluids leaking from him, one hand working him in the same rhythm as his demanding tongue stroking the underside.

“Too close,” Riddick warned on a ragged exhale.

Loki pulled off with a suggestive sucking sound. He rose to his feet and wrapped his hand around Riddick's cock. _Onto the bed._

Riddick took a deep breath and then snorted. “You don't know where it is and you can't see anything. Am I supposed to lead you by my dick?”

_Let no one ever suggest you're not quick to understand a situation._

Riddick burst out laughing. “No, I can't do it.” His hands came up to hold Loki by the shoulders and he leaned in to brush his mouth against Loki’s and then pulled him along as he walked backwards slowly. Loki grinned and kept hold of him, sliding his grip lazily back and forth along the shaft as they walked. Riddick's fingers flexed on his shoulders with each stroke.

“Here,” he said, stopping. Loki could hear the desire mixed with the amusement in his voice.

Riddick dropped his hands and gently slid himself out of Loki's hand as he sat on the edge of the bed, Loki standing between his knees. Loki felt the bed against his shins, then Riddick's hands grasping the backs of his thighs. Riddick's breath was hot against his cock, but he made no further moves until Loki rested a hand on the back of his head and urged him with a slight motion of his fingers. Riddick pressed his lips gently against the skin of Loki's cock, then began a series of open-mouthed sucking kisses that sent sharp knives dancing up his spine to spice the aching pleasure of Riddick's mouth on him. Loki’s head fell back and he groaned, holding on to Riddick’s broad shoulders for support.

Warmth pooled in his belly but plateaued. As much as he'd missed the feel of Riddick's mouth around him, it wasn't what he craved. He cupped Riddick's cheek, tapping lightly at the corner of his mouth. The predator made a slight discontented sound but leaned away.

“What do you need, ghostling?” Riddick slid his hands up Loki's thighs to his hips, thumbs caressing the soft skin framed by his pelvic bones. He leaned forward to lay another light kiss on Loki's cock. “Tell me.”

Loki laughed. _Are you awaiting my next command so obediently?_

“Mmm. No, let's go with impatiently.” He cupped Loki's balls, pinching gently at the loose skin. “Next kiss comes with teeth, ghostling. Get on with it.”

 _I need my mouth on you again._ Loki dropped to his knees between Riddick's spread thighs, feeling Riddick's hands come up, cradling his face to guide him. He took Riddick's cock in his mouth and felt the urgency rise again. A hungry growl rose in his throat and Riddick moaned at the vibrations and at the fierce way Loki drove him, cheeks hollowing as he sucked.

Riddick came hard, shuddering and bent forward over Loki to keep from thrusting into his mouth, groaning through clenched teeth. Loki drank him down, worked him with his hands to force out everything Riddick could offer, until Riddick pushed his head away roughly.

 _I need your_ knife,” Loki said, his hands grabbing on to Riddick's thighs.

“Say that again?”

Loki frowned. “Did you fail to hear me the first time?”

Riddick made a soft pleased sound. “No, I heard you properly.”

“Ahhh. That _is_ better.”

“And no, I'm not giving you my knife.”

“Riddick…”

“Loki. I've already been your chew toy. I don't want you carving pieces out of me.”

Loki rose up on his knees and kissed Riddick, pressing his body against him. “I don't want pieces. I just need to taste you,” he murmured against Riddick's mouth. “Give me your knife and lay on your stomach, Riddick.”

Riddick took three long, even breaths without moving. Then, without a word, he leaned to the side and back, took Loki's hand and placed a knife in it.

Loki pressed a kiss to the hollow of Riddick's throat, between his collarbones, feeling the pulse beat under the warm silky skin, a little fast but slowing. Riddick's hands rested on Loki's shoulders, laying motionless there while he breathed.

“Riddick,” Loki whispered into his skin.

Slowly, Riddick tilted his head down and lightly kissed Loki's forehead. He sighed and rolled his shoulders back, his hands coming up to frame Loki's face, thumbs caressing over Loki's mouth. “Take what you need, Loki.” And he pushed back onto the bed, turning to lay face down.

Loki exhaled reverently and followed him up to straddle his hips, laying the knife flat along the indentation of Riddick's spine and leaning down to kiss the nape of his neck. Riddick shivered, tension fleeting along the muscles under his skin, and then he deliberately relaxed against the bed.

Loki placed the edge of the blade against the back of Riddick's right shoulder and drew it delicately across, with no force at all, in a straight line from his spine almost to his arm. He could smell the sudden tang of blood and traced the cut with a fingertip, appreciating the admirable sharpness of Riddick's blade. A very fine cut, just barely breaking the surface. He licked his fingertip clean and leaned to follow the line with his tongue, gathering the blood with lingering strokes. Then he repeated the cut on Riddick's left shoulder, licking the blood there, feeling a distant promise of satiation as he swallowed.

Riddick shifted a little under him, keeping his breathing steady and slow. Loki kissed along his spine and drew two more straight cuts under each of the first ones, keeping them parallel, going back over all the lines with his tongue. Then he started to cut curved and spiraling patterns down Riddick's back, following after to clean the blood from Riddick's skin.

He _saw_ the design he was creating, the lines he carved burning like fire in the darkness that surrounded him, and when Riddick shifted under him again, the lines followed his movement. Loki caught his breath, almost a sob, and Riddick stilled under him.

“Loki?” he murmured.

“I can see the lines I'm cutting. I can see them move as you move,” he said raggedly.

Riddick exhaled. “Keep going then.”

Loki traced his back with the blade, nudging him to roll to one side to cut a pattern that wrapped around the hard curves of Riddick’s backside and hip. When Loki drew the blade against the soft skin of the inside of his hip and followed it with his mouth, Riddick shuddered and moaned, stomach muscles clenching. His cock was hard again and Loki laid a gentle hand on it in acknowledgment.

“You're going to make me wait,” Riddick said in a rough growl.

Loki smiled to himself, his mouth moving against Riddick's hip. “No,” he said simply, and shifted to take him in his mouth, drawing hard, savoring Riddick's surprised jerk and the shout jolted from him. He drew his hand down Riddick's back, over the cuts he'd made, and felt Riddick shiver, felt the twitch in the cock against his tongue. Riddick came fast, flooding Loki's mouth, taste of semen mixing with the blood he'd been licking up. It sank into him, awakening that distant promise of satisfaction again.

Loki kissed the outer edge of Riddick’s hip, began drawing the blade down his thigh, encouraging Riddick to lift and bend his leg so Loki could continue the spiraling cut. Riddick made a quiet grumble of complaint, then sucked in a shivery breath at the touch of Loki's mouth to each bloody line.

Loki finished that leg with five delicate lines branched across the top of Riddick's foot, ending at each toe. Riddick grumbled again at the light kiss Loki dropped on his big toe as he finished the last cut, but he was already shifting to lay on his other side, making himself available for Loki and the knife.

Loki felt a surge of warmth and swarmed up Riddick to claim his mouth, shifting his hips against Riddick's in delicious friction.

Riddick made a deep noise that vibrated against Loki's lips. “Get on with it, ghostling.”

Loki laughed softly. “I will not hurry this. You will just have to endure.”

Riddick growled and ran a hand down Loki's shoulder and arm, making a play for his knife. Loki let him take his hand but kept hold of the knife. Riddick huffed a complaint, then moved Loki's hand, with the knife, toward his unmarked hip. Loki bit Riddick’s lip and slipped down, stroking Riddick's unmarked hip softly with the back of his fingers, then settling to mirror the pattern from the other side.

Riddick allowed Loki to move him as needed, breathing a little unevenly, murmurs rising when Loki traced over sensitive spots. Loki finished his other leg and slid up to take Riddick’s cock in his mouth again, wringing another orgasm from him to swallow down with the blood in his mouth.

Riddick lay panting on his back when Loki lifted his mouth. “Rest,” Loki whispered against the inside of his hip.

“No,” Riddick murmured, his breathing smoothing out, slowing. “Keep going.”

Loki nudged Riddick up, lazy and loose-limbed, to sit on the edge of the bed, then knelt at his side and placed the tip of the knife just under Riddick's ear. Riddick's breathing stopped entirely and tension flashed through him. “I'm awake now,” he said conversationally.

Loki grinned and kissed behind his ear tenderly before starting to cut an elegant swirl of a line down the side of his neck that followed the muscles to his clavicle, over across the top of his shoulder, and spiraling down and around his arm. He drew the same pattern of five lines down the back of Riddick's hand to his fingers, but continued each line down the back of each finger, sucking each finger into his mouth and teasing with his tongue. Then he moved around Riddick to do the same to the other shoulder and arm.

Riddick was breathing raggedly again when Loki finished. Loki moved to the floor to kneel up between Riddick's spread knees, felt Riddick hard against his stomach when he leaned in to kiss him.

Riddick made a quiet sound of complaint and Loki leaned away slightly, frowning.

“You taste like my blood, Loki,” Riddick said wryly. “Not my favorite flavor.”

Loki chuckled. “Once more unto the breach then, Riddick. Lean back on your elbows so I can do your front.”

Riddick exhaled, raising his hands to cup Loki's face. Loki delighted in seeing that happen, the lines of fire he'd cut into Riddick's skin outlining his predator’s motions.

Riddick leaned to touch Loki's forehead with his own, their breath mingling. He gently angled Loki's face up a bit, touched his mouth to Loki's and whispered, lips just brushing. “If you touch my dick with that knife, I will do my damnedest to pull whatever internal organs you currently have out through your ass.”

Loki collapsed against Riddick, laughing until he was breathless.

“Just so we’re clear,” Riddick added, stroking Loki's cheek with a thumb.

“By the _gods_ , Riddick. You've enjoyed it enough thus far. Lay back, you monster.”

“How is that fair coming from the creature carving me up with my own knife? _And_ drinking my blood.”

Loki huffed a laugh and pulled Riddick to him for a fierce kiss, then pushed him backwards. Riddick came to rest supported on his elbows and Loki leaned up and over him, hips pressed to Riddick's groin. When he tilted Riddick's head back to touch the knife tip under the center of his jaw, Riddick swallowed under Loki's fingertips, hips shifting then stilling.

“Tell me again how distasteful you find this,” Loki murmured into the side of Riddick's throat, pressing his cock against Riddick's.

“ _Loki…_ ” His name in Riddick's mouth was almost obscene. Loki felt his cock twitch and knew Riddick felt it just as distinctly.

Loki pressed his mouth to the pulse point underneath the corner of Riddick's jaw. “Just so we're clear,” he husked into the warm skin with a smile.

Riddick made a shaky amused noise and tilted his head back further. “I never expected this to be one of my kinks.”

Loki growled against his throat. “Only with me.”

A quiet huff of a laugh. “Don't be stupid.”

Loki bit at the pulse point under his mouth, drawing blood, and Riddick hissed, his body tensing.

“Only with me, Riddick,” Loki demanded.

Riddick pushed himself up slowly and inexorably until he was sitting straight up again, forcing Loki upright as well, still on his knees between Riddick's spread legs. Loki moved the knife away as soon as Riddick started to move and Riddick's hands settled at Loki's hips, fingers holding him hard, forcing a little space between them.

“Loki. Do you really need me to _say_ that I trust you?”

Loki shivered, waiting, needing to hear it; Riddick leaned in to touch his mouth to Loki's ear. “I have never willingly handed a knife to anyone, knowing they would use it on me. I trust you.”

“Why?” Loki whispered.

Riddick laughed softly. “Because I do.”

“We don't even know what I am right now.”

“Loki. Do you feel any urge to really hurt me?”

“Of course not!”

“And would you tell me if you did?”

Loki sighed. “Yes.”

“Then we don't have a problem, do we?”

“How are you so calm with all of this?”

Riddick breathed against his cheek, fingers stroking lightly against Loki's hips, looking for the right word. “Expectations.”

“…what? Wait, that you don't have any?”

“Exactly.”

“So this is you living in the moment.” Loki felt Riddick’s mouth curved in a smile against his cheek.

“Be pretty stupid not to follow my own advice.”

“You don't have any hopes? Fears?”

“Plenty. Just don't react on them. They're not real.”

“How do you _do_ this?”

“You're gonna be unhappy if I tell you it's just practice.”

Loki sighed again, put a hand on Riddick's sternum. “I'm unhappy with the unknown. Lay back and distract me, beast.”

Riddick chuckled and lowered himself back to his elbows, letting his head fall back to expose his throat for Loki and the knife.

Loki pressed against him, mouth moving against the hollow at the base of Riddick's throat. “Gods and monsters and lost souls in every corner of every cold _hell_ , Riddick. How are you so fucking _perfect_?”

Riddick breathed a laugh. “Far from it, civilized. Just the right sort of twisted to match yours. Now get _on_ with it.”

Loki cut a line straight down the center of Riddick’s throat and chest to his navel, barely drawing blood, following with his mouth. He dropped a teasing kiss on the head of Riddick's cock, then drew an abstract and elegant tree up from the base of his cock to branch out across the muscles of his stomach and up his chest, drawing delicate leaf-shapes around his nipples and up under his collarbones.

Riddick kept his breathing even and slow while the blade was in contact with his skin, though his thigh muscles clenched somewhat rhythmically. When Loki lifted the blade, Riddick shoved his hips up against Loki, a moan escaping him. Loki dropped down to wrap his mouth around Riddick's cock, fingers of one hand tracing all the lines within reach that he'd cut into Riddick, the other hand placing the blade on the bed to one side and then holding Riddick down by the thigh.

Loki drank him down, reveling in the hoarse cries he forced out of Riddick until Riddick tugged at him roughly, oversensitive, a little frantic.

“Too much,” he whispered raggedly. “Loki…”

Loki slid onto the bed, urging Riddick up and then pulling him over to lay on his stomach. Riddick grumbled into the bed wearily but let Loki position him.

“Rest,” Loki murmured against his shoulder, settling his hand flat against Riddick's spine.

Riddick made a deep incoherent noise into the bed and Loki felt him relax into sleep.

 

Loki slipped cautiously off the bed but Riddick never stirred. A surge of contentment filled him as his predator slept deeply; worn out certainly, but Loki knew Riddick would never sleep that thoroughly in the presence of someone he didn't trust.

He explored the room by touch, a slow process of mapping out the walls, the door, the bathroom, the cabinets. He frequently turned to watch Riddick breathe, body outlined in fiery patterns. The connection between them, once a thin thread, had woven itself into multi-stranded braid, strong and beautiful, dancing with a shared pulse.

After awhile Riddick shifted, a hand moving, and Loki swiftly returned to the bed to touch him. “I'm here,” he murmured.

“Mmm. Do you need something?” Riddick asked sleepily.

“Not right now,” Loki replied quietly.

Riddick turned over onto his back, stretching. Loki watched him, feeling the touch of that hunger again, but distantly. He also felt a strange itch between his shoulderblades, as if someone were watching; it reminded him of Heimdall’s golden gaze and he felt a wave of grief rise up.

Riddick pulled him down and turned them both on their sides facing each other, cradling Loki to him. Loki nudged Riddick's chin up to nuzzle at the base of his throat, mouthing at the living pulse he felt beating there.

“Loki,” Riddick whispered.

Despite his sadness, Loki smiled against Riddick's skin. “What ridiculous thing are you planning to tell me, my beast?”

Riddick paused, grumbling deep in his throat. “I itch. All over. Everywhere you cut me. It's annoying.”

Loki laughed. “Where is your vaunted stoicism now, Riddick?”

“Waiting for me in the bathtub.”

“Necromongers are quite possibly the beings furthest from sybaritic you might find, however did you wrest a bathtub from them?”

“I don't let them tell me no for no good reason.”

“Oh, of course it's that simple.”

“Loki. Bath. Now.”

Loki felt an almost hysterical surge of laughter bubble up. “Sex with you is always going to involve a bathtub, is it not?”

Riddick held his face, making a ridiculous effort to kiss him through a grin, and Loki melted. Whatever had happened in the past, whatever the future might hold, this moment was going to involve his predator and a tub full of hot water. And that was something worth his full attention.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obviously to be continued. So much for a one-shot crack rare pair ship, sis...


	4. Boundary Conditions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Most of the resolution of Loki's strange transient condition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is short and maybe a bit angsty? I don't normally do angst (I don't enjoy it much myself), and I assure you it is entirely temporary, transitory, and kind of necessary to carry us into the next part of their lives.
> 
> (ducks and runs away to write more)

 

Riddick guided Loki into the bath with him, settling the ghost-like figure in front of him. He wasn't quite see-through, more like a transparent form filled with grey mist. His eyes, though, when they were open, were a deep green, almost luminous, with no pupil, just a faint starburst of dully glowing copper lines. Reminded Riddick of a targeting sight, though Loki’s gaze was blindly unfocused unless Riddick were in view. Then he could see Loki hungrily tracing the lines he'd carved into him. He had to admit to a perverse satisfaction that he was the only thing Loki could see right now.

When Riddick ran his hand over the subtle muscles of Loki's stomach, it felt like skin under his palm — a little cool maybe, but with the silkiness and give he remembered and expected.

Riddick nipped at Loki's shoulder, holding the bite with his teeth and tasting with his tongue. He remembered the subtle salt and honey flavor of Loki's skin and he found a faint echo of it now. Loki's nipples were still as sensitive as ever, responding to the slightest pinch.

Loki's head fell back against his shoulder and he moaned, and _that_ was exactly as Riddick remembered.

“I missed this,” Loki whispered, turning his head to kiss at the side of Riddick's throat.

“No fucking joke, ghostling,” Riddick growled.

Loki sighed. “I won't keep apologizing.”

“Not asking you to.” Riddick pushed Loki's head forward and scraped his teeth over the nape of his neck, drawing a shudder from Loki but, interestingly enough, no blood. “We're good, Loki. Part of me is still a little angry about the time we didn't get to have. But that's not on you. I saw what you showed me.”

Loki took Riddick's hand and drew it down to wrap around Loki's cock. “Not a very Zen thing, that anger.”

Riddick snorted and squeezed Loki until he gasped and arched against him. “Fuck, I must have missed the part where I became a perfect enlightened being shedding peace and compassion wherever I go.”

Loki choked on his laughter and turned in the bath to curl on his side against Riddick, tucking himself under Riddick's chin.

Riddick frowned and held Loki's cock softly, barely shifting along the half-hard shaft, nosed gently against Loki's hair, nearly unseen, but soft and pliable, individual strands tickling against his face. “Tell me what you need, Loki,” he murmured.

“Just this right now.” Loki settled, relaxing, his breathing evening out and slowing.

Riddick let his hand slip up to rest on Loki's hip, let him apparently fall asleep.

His forehead creased in worry. He'd hadn't expected to see Loki again after so long, but he'd _known_ somehow that the Asgardian wasn't dead. He'd worked hard at letting him go, holding the good memories, hell, even jacking to them. He'd certainly had no taste for anyone else since. And he'd figured Loki had just moved on.

But he couldn't escape the feeling he'd had, sorting through Loki's memories, that Loki had been used and set aside like a game piece that was out of moves. How he'd escaped death was a mystery to Loki and worrisome to Riddick. It didn't look like an escape from his perspective. It looked like someone had moved a forgotten game piece to a different game.

Riddick didn't believe in fate. But _something_ had herded Loki down those paths almost unthinkingly. And _something_ had brought him here. Or as much here as he was.

He looked down at Loki again, stroking his side gently, letting his fingertips count the ridges of Loki's ribs. This felt like a pause, maybe a regrouping. Not a final stopping place. Loki's form, his hungers, that occasional distracted glance over his shoulder…

Riddick scowled. He'd worked all his life at not wanting things, not holding on to things. Not having what someone could hold over him. No hostages to fate.

And yet, though he was entirely unwilling, here he was. Got himself a wet lapful of ghostly godling with a connection to his mind if not his heart and soul, and no power to change what might be coming. And it was coming fast.

And Riddick was suddenly, incandescently, angry.

He'd lost his parents, whatever family he might have had, as an infant, long before permanent memories formed. He'd lost his planet, his entire people, before he'd even known they existed. He'd lost choice and freedom more times than he cared to count anymore for the crime of being mistaken for a human and held to human rules and expectations. He'd lost interest in trying to change his situation, not having any other possibilities open to him, and turned to the game with the Mercs out of sheer boredom.

And then he'd found Loki and he'd given up his freedom once again to protect him. To preserve what they'd made together.

And when he'd thought he'd lost Loki anyway, to boredom or power or whatever other reasons people have to leave others behind, he'd lost interest in everything else. He didn't seek death, but he made no effort to avoid the situations he found himself in, and his survival instincts kept him alive even when he couldn't bring himself to care much at all.

And now, _now_ , the universe wanted to drag Loki across his trail again like bait, and he was expected to pad after him like some dumb animal on a scent? To overlook the pain of that first separation, the stretching of that ephemeral connection that had felt like a thread being peeled out and unwound from his fucking soul?

Riddick didn't blame Loki. Loki was the tool of some force that seemed determined to hollow him out, scrape him empty and dry, and leave him hanging to tatter in some universal wind. And Loki had suffered through the loss of everything he'd held as well.

And Riddick, used to pain, to loss, to moving on despite everything life had thrown at him, ran into an immovable wall deep within himself for the first time, and roared at the universe in furious denial. _Here_ was the line he would draw, here was the thing he would hold onto until his grip slipped in his own lifeblood.

The connection with Loki, once an almost invisible thread, now a braided rope between them, flared with all the colors of flame.

And Loki awoke with a gasp, his form flushing with warm tints, his eyes wide and green, coppery pupils focused on Riddick's face.

“What,” Loki stuttered, shocked. His gaze flicked around desperately, taking in the details of the room. “Riddick, what happened? I can see you. I can see everything.”

Riddick's jaw clenched, his body shaking with the force of his fury. At the imminent grief, the fear, the agonizing shredding that was coming to the carefully mended edges of himself he’d guarded for so long.

“Riddick,” Loki said softly. He knelt in front of Riddick, his hands, warm and silky, one on Riddick's shoulder, one cradled against his cheek.

He didn't trust himself to speak, couldn't unlock his jaw without letting loose some animal howl of loss and agony. He stared at Loki, willing him to understand, to see, without Riddick having to form words. He managed to raise shaking hands to touch Loki's face, his eyes spilling over.

Loki inhaled slowly. “Whatever is coming, Riddick…”

Riddick’s whole body clenched around his throat, stopping the swell of the pain trying to scrape free.

Loki dropped his eyes. “Don't follow if you can't,” he whispered.

Riddick took him by the shoulders and shook him viciously, baring his teeth, breath hissing through the constriction in his chest and neck.

Loki shook his head. “I don't expect it of you, my predator. You didn't ask to play star-crossed lovers.”

The harsh cry tore itself from Riddick, scouring his throat and slicing his insides. Loki tried to hush him, held Riddick's face, his own eyes wet as he finally nodded.

“Yes, all right, I hear, I understand, I know. I know. As long as we're both alive then, Riddick. As long as…” He broke off, stiffening, his pupils contracting to a tiny glowing copper point in a green sea.

“Boundary conditions resolved,” Loki said calmly, staring at Riddick. “Satisfactory solution identified. Implementing.”

Riddick struggled for breath as Loki began to dissolve under his hands and then something _other_ was studying him through Loki's fading eyes. Something that might have been a flash of sympathy flickered there.

“Furia,” Loki's voice said softly before he was gone entirely.

And Riddick threw back his head and screamed at the universe until it tasted like blood and went black and silent around him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MORE IS COMING. I AM WRITING EVEN AS I POST THIS CHAPTER  
> (okay, maybe not _as_ I post it, obviously there is a necessary break to switch tabs...)
> 
> (runs away to write more)


	5. Braid and Anchor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Riddick and Loki really really hate the star-crossed lovers thing and set about fixing that

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still more or less on-canon for Riddick (it's more what you'd call a guideline..)
> 
> Oh, and Vaako wanders through in his inimitable way

 

Loki opened his eyes. He was naked on a bed in a room with pale walls and a wooden ceiling and floor. Light poured across the room from translucent windows in one wall.

He sat up quickly, swinging his feet to the smooth floor and felt…good. Better than good. As if he'd been through the hands of the most skilled Asgardian healers. He stood, looking himself over. He'd had few scars, but what few he'd had were gone. His skin was a pale warm shade with no blue undertone. He glanced around, found a door to a bathroom and strode through, stopping dead at the sight of himself in the mirror. His eyes were still fiercely green but his pupils were a deep copper, his hair no longer black but instead darkest auburn with hints of copper and chocolate and burnished gold.

“What in the coldest hells…”

“Loki, welcome to Furia.” The voice was sourceless, as if it came from the air around him.

Loki put out a hand to touch the wall, searching for a steady surface. “I hope there are explanations forthcoming.”

“Those will be provided.”

“And clothing. And food.”

A hint of movement behind him and Loki spun around. A door had opened in the bedroom wall, leading to a snug room with a table and a single chair. Another smaller opening near the bed showed shelving with a neat stack of clothing. Loki walked over, pulled out loose pants and a tunic top in a silky green fabric so dark it was almost black, embroidered lightly in copper patterns.

He slipped into the clothing, padded barefoot to the table where a small bowl of some clear but savory-smelling soup awaited.

“Clear soup,” he said flatly.

“You would likely regret testing your system with anything more substantial at the moment.”

He sighed, dropping into the chair and staring at the soup. “Explanations would be welcome. Who you are, for instance.”

“The guardian of this place.”

“Of Furia. Which was destroyed by Necromongers.”

“The attack was seen in advance. Small numbers of people were moved off-planet secretly and safely. All Furian knowledge and technology was preserved in a cache buried deep within the planetary crust. I was placed here to seek out and nurture the arising of one suitable to rebuild this world.”

“Nurture,” Loki said, clenching his hands around the fury that shivered along his bones. “So you are the one responsible for all that has happened?” His tone was mild, a shield held tightly while he worked out the next needed steps to vengeance.

“All that has happened? Ahh, I see the error you are making.” The voice gentled. “Loki, once Odinson, I had no influence in your previous life. I was drawn to you because of the connection you forged with a Furian; few as they are in this universe, they stand in my sight like stars. You, in your curious un-alive condition, with the willing assistance of your Furian, strengthened that connection and brought yourself to my attention. What forces may have driven you before, I cannot say, or see.”

“ _Why am I here_?” Loki shouted, coming to his feet.

“Because the technology to rebuild requires the touch of living hands. Those of a Furian, or one like enough to be recognized as such. And though I did not yet have the resources to bring a living Furian here, _you_ were much less of a strain. I brought your…essence…here, and built you a body to anchor it.”

Loki paced the room restlessly. “Had I been given a choice…” he whispered. He broke off, realized he was rubbing at an ache near the center of his chest. If he closed his eyes he could almost see an elegantly braided line stretched tautly into an immeasurable distance. “Riddick,” he breathed.

Loki touched his chest again in agitation. The connection was cold and colorless. His predator was suffering.

“Your link to him is very strong,” the guardian remarked thoughtfully. “But…”

Loki smiled, and _pushed_ a portion of himself into the connection, forcing it down the braid like colored ink soaking into new cloth. The world roared around him and spun sickeningly and the wooden floor came up to meet him in a very sudden way.

 

{ … }

 

“That was foolish.” The guardian’s voice was cold.

Loki blinked at the wooden ceiling, awakening in the light-drenched bed for the second time. “It may shock you to learn that I am stubborn.”

He laid a hand on his chest and closed his eyes again. The braided connection, while still cool and pale, had a very faint tint to it now. And it felt less like a rope binding him to a distant hell of ice. Loki felt a moment’s satisfaction — Riddick was unlikely to mistake even a subtle change, and Loki thought that had not been subtle.

“ _You_ are the single hope this world has. I have not found another such possibility in all the realms I was able to see. I am a guardian of this world, a watcher set to seek a solution. I was given eyes to catch the faintest hope and the ability to gather enough reach that I might bring that hope here and set it to grow.”

Loki set his lips grimly. “I am no one's hope,” he said. “I have brought about nothing but ruin and pain throughout my entire existence.”

 The voice softened somewhat. “Few are those that bring unrelieved evil upon the universe. Even had you been such, an opportunity stands before you now to do otherwise. An entire world awaits the hands of one who can bring it back to life. How many have such a second chance offered?”

Loki squeezed his eyes shut. “I did not ask for this. All I wanted, all I reached out for when everything else ended, was _him_.”

There was a long pause and then the guardian sighed. “Then re-make his world for him. He will eventually seek Furia, though he is very distant. Forge him the refuge he has been seeking all _his_ life.” The voice dropped to an almost soundless whisper. “This nearly dead world is _his_.”

The walls around Loki lit with images of seared wastelands, barren mountains, empty boiled-down lakes and listless discolored rivers.

“Would you have him come home to this?”

Loki was flooded with flashes of Asgard, in ruins, burning and wrenching itself apart. The home Loki had always turned his back on, yet returned to over and over. Until it was gone, destroyed. Removed from the realms of possibility, peopled only in his memories and then only by the dead.

Loki swallowed. _This_ world didn't even have ruins. The hatred that had scoured this world had refused to leave even traces of where cities might have been, scraping or burning some portions of the continents down to bedrock.

“Where…” he whispered. “Where would one even begin?”

 

++++

 

Riddick watched Vaako enter the room and pick his way fastidiously past the handful of bodies scattered across the floor. His Commander General glanced at each dead face once as he approached, not meeting Riddick's stare.

“I failed to prevent this attack on you, my lord,” he said calmly.

“I wonder how often you fail at anything,” Riddick rasped. One of the attackers had gotten a lucky arm across his throat and it had briefly aroused him to fury. But now that they were all messily dead, Riddick found himself sinking back into cold indifference.

Vaako came within arm's reach and dropped abruptly to a knee, head bent forward and arms spread wide to either side, hands empty.

Riddick looked down at him, fighting a surge of loss as he thought of Loki at his feet like this. He pushed it down ruthlessly and studied the back of Vaako’s neck where it emerged, pale, from the top of his armor.

When he reached down to stroke lightly at the cool skin, brushing at the edge of the dark hairline, his Commander General shivered ever so slightly. He didn't make a helpless sound, he didn't push up into the touch, he didn't reach out to hold onto Riddick's thighs as if to keep from drowning.

Riddick pulled his hand away with a growl.

“My lord,” Vaako murmured.

“Are you looking for punishment?” Riddick demanded.

“My purpose is to serve the Lord Marshall, who shall bring us to the Threshold, and over it to the Underverse. What I do, what I choose, is always to that purpose.”

“And none of these would have…” Riddick coughed as his voice caught in his raw throat.

Vaako raised his head and tilted it back to look up at him. “None of these could have furthered us on that path. It is my failure that I allowed this risk to you.”

Riddick made a rough sound deep in his throat. “So you're offering yourself as…what?”

Vaako gazed up at him calmly. “Whatever my lord needs.”

In spite of himself, Riddick felt his cock twitch. A body reaction, he knew, bypassing the higher functions altogether.

It'd been months since Loki had been taken.  The patterns he'd cut into Riddick's skin and traced with his tongue had healed without scarring, leaving him no physical reminders, no matter how he'd tried to keep the cuts open. The connection between them, intrusively there, was icy and still and pulled at the roots of Riddick's soul like old bridge supports dangling over an abyss, fighting gravity out of sheer stubbornness. Its presence suggested that Loki was still in existence in some way, but as unreachable as the dead.

He’d begun the mental scarring too soon, probably, trying to numb the jagged edges of the hole torn in him.  He'd stopped meditating, stopped thinking as much as possible, fallen back on survival habits and instinctual planning.

He'd welcomed the coldness, the almost-apathy, the lack of desires. A dangerous thing to do in a dangerous situation. The flicker of sexual interest triggered by Vaako’s offer told him his body was at odds with his mind.

Riddick settled his hand against Vaako's face, thumb stroking his mouth. His lips were well-shaped and his mouth opened slightly at Riddick's touch, his tongue tip almost involuntarily darting to touch Riddick's thumb.

His gaze was steady on Riddick's face, watchful, and Riddick could see the calculation as Vaako settled onto both knees and slowly brought his arms back down and behind himself, hands clasping each other.

The corner of Riddick's mouth tucked up. “That's a good attempt.”

Vaako let his eyes slide shut and turned his head a little to take Riddick's thumb into his mouth. His cheeks hollowed as he sucked, and he moved his tongue against the sensitive base where it joined Riddick's palm.

Riddick felt arousal coiling distantly in his belly, in his balls, the body taking notice even as his mind settled on cool amusement.

He pulled his thumb away gently, fingers caressing for a moment behind Vaako's ear before he lifted his hand entirely.

“You know the submission pleases me,” Riddick said, amusement clear even through the hoarseness of his voice. “Consider yourself forgiven for this lapse.”

Vaako opened his eyes, Riddick's amusement echoed in the tiny creases at the corners of Vaako’s eyelids. His mouth quirked as he rose easily to his feet. “My Lord Marshall is gracious.”

“Your Lord Marshall is making you responsible for getting this mess cleaned up.”

Vaako inclined his head and turned to watch Riddick leave. Riddick felt that gaze on his back until the door shut between them.

He took himself to his rooms, stripping off his clothes with brutal efficiency and stepping into the shower. He cleaned off the residue of the fight quickly and dried off and dressed with equal speed, only to find himself pacing from room to room, circling the furniture restlessly as his body moved without direction from the icy layer that surrounded his thoughts.

It took hours of pacing and exercising before he tired himself enough to drop onto the empty bed, hours more before his eyes finally closed in the darkness without images of Loki appearing against the inside of his eyelids.

 

{ … }

 

Riddick supposed Vaako was testing him. He had no other explanation for Vaako’s sudden apparent sexual interest in a breeder.

He was discreet, always waiting until he and Riddick were alone, offering to spar with his Lord Marshall. And he never held back during a fight, forcing Riddick to his best efforts to subdue him without killing him. He ignored minor injuries, and took the occasional major one with equanimity, knowing his purification rites would serve to heal him.

The third time he offered, Riddick eventually had him pinned against a wall, Vaako struggling fiercely until he realized he had no leverage. There was a pause, then Vaako exhaled and relaxed, his hips shifting fluidly back against Riddick. Riddick let him loose, and Vaako twisted to sink to his knees, focusing his gaze on Riddick's groin, then looking up, his mouth soft as he panted, tongue tip flicking out to taste a small trickle of blood from a split in his bottom lip.

Riddick reached down to hold his chin, studying him. Vaako slowly raised his hands to curve around Riddick's hips and backside, thumbs resting on the crests of his pelvic bones, smallest fingers nestled at the sensitive crease where the powerful muscles of Riddick's ass met the backs of his thighs.

The sight of him kneeling there, waiting for any indication from Riddick, raised a curl of want along Riddick's spine, but he found himself smiling wryly and he stepped away, gesturing Vaako to his feet.

“Try that attack again,” Riddick said easily. “But aim lower. It'll leave me less room to maneuver around you.”

At the next day’s sparring session, Riddick dropped Vaako to the floor, pinning him facedown with Riddick's full weight. Vaako surged against the hold, nearly dislocating his shoulder in his effort.

“Stay down!” Riddick snarled, shoving Vaako’s legs apart with his own to remove his leverage. Vaako tensed, then dropped his forehead to the floor and exhaled. Riddick eased Vaako’s arm free, applying a little pressure on his shoulder to keep the joint in place as the arm settled. Vaako spread his legs wider underneath Riddick, his hips coming up off the floor slightly. He slid his hands out to either side, extending his arms.

Riddick supported himself on his hands, staring at the back of Vaako’s neck.

“No,” Vaako said softly. “This isn't right, is it?” Moving slowly, he pulled his limbs in and turned over underneath Riddick, settling him into the cradle of his hipbones, legs bent on either side of Riddick’s hips. He stroked his fingers along Riddick's ribs, staring up at him with dark, considering eyes.

At Riddick's silence, Vaako’s mouth quirked. “Still no? Well, I am a little out of practice.”

“Wouldn't think it'd be a useful skill here,” Riddick said calmly, ignoring the slide of his cock against Vaako’s as they breathed.

“One rarely knows in advance exactly what will be needed to serve one's purpose.”

“True enough.” Riddick pushed to his feet, holding out a hand to Vaako. Vaako took it, pulled himself up with grace, and rolled his shoulders with a slight wince.

“We're done here,” Riddick said firmly. “Go have that shoulder seen to.”

Two days later, Vaako stepped into his bathroom, without his usual armor, as Riddick was showering. He'd made more than enough noise in his deliberate approach that Riddick knew it wasn't an attack.

Riddick let his forehead drop forward to touch the tiled wall as the warm water cascaded down. “Vaako. What do you _want_?”

Vaako began removing his clothing. “If the body thirsts, you give it drink. If the body hungers, you give it food. To do otherwise is to bring on weakness.”

Riddick felt the first tiny urge in months for laughter. His mouth curved. “And as a breeder, obviously I need to occasionally empty my balls?”

Vaako paused in slipping off his trousers and wrinkled his nose. “As you say.”

Riddick turned the water off and stepped out to stand, dripping and naked, in front of his naked Commander General. Who was concerned about his Lord Marshall’s _health_ , for fuck’s sake. He fought down the urge to laugh again.

“ _If_ I felt the need, Vaako, _if_ , then as I am the proud possessor of a pair of working hands, I could take care of it myself.”

Vaako tilted his head, considering that. “I distantly recall that it…had more savor…when completed with others.”

Riddick's eyebrows climbed. “Are you even capable, after conversion?” He indicated Vaako’s flaccid cock.

A faint smirk crossed Vaako’s mouth. “It is not _my_ balls that need emptying, my lord.”

The laughter bubbled up in his chest, parting briefly around the icy twist resident there, and emerged from his mouth as a cough, then a snort, then a flood of laughter that had him sliding down the wall to sit helpless until he subsided into occasional snickers.

Vaako watched him patiently, crouched down into an effortless and elegant squat, forearms draped across his thighs, head tilted.

Riddick took a deep breath, momentarily relaxed and easy, and evaluated the man. Vaako was, in a word, beautiful. Riddick almost wished he'd found him before conversion. Even with the icy spear of religious conviction rammed up his taut and well-shaped ass, he was intelligent, loyal, compassionate, and retained a sense of humor. A better man than Riddick had ever been, not quite ruined by an insane culture set on wiping life from the universe.

Even now, he felt a temptation he knew better than to consider. Though Loki was gone, there was no space within Riddick to fit anyone else. Probably never would be, even if he thought he could somehow wrangle a place in Vaako that would rival his precious Underverse.

He sighed, rubbed at his chest, and shook his head at Vaako. “Get out, Commander General,” he said mildly. “Your assistance in this is not necessary.”

Vaako rose gracefully to his feet and bowed. “As you command, my lord.”

 

{ … }

 

He felt it in his dream first, floating listlessly on the dark surface of a vast and cold sea, staring up at the distant stars. An upwelling of warmth, as if something had disturbed the layers of water below him.

His brow furrowed as he tensed, suddenly aware of the monstrous unseen depths beneath him, the possibility of some colossal _thing_ rising towards him unobserved.

He panicked, thrashed, trying to turn in time to catch a glimpse, some hint of the threat surfacing.

He woke, his eyes wide, drowning in air as he choked, his throat closing as the twist buried in his chest convulsed. Unable to draw a breath, his body locked in taut bow, his jaw open in a soundless scream as all the raw scarred edges of the wounds within him tore open again and bled, and suddenly closed.

He curled on his side, gasping, fingers twitching against his chest. The connection that stretched out from him pulsed once, a slow lazy surge, then settled into a delicate warmth, a hint of color. The lines Loki had carved on him with his own knife flared with a coppery light, then settled to faint shadows under his skin. Loki's mark on him, a memory of pleasure and hope and, at the same time, a net wrapping around him, binding him. 

Desire and rage tore at each other inside him and he found himself pounding the bed with his fists, helplessly furious.

He finally gave up, exhausted, rolling onto his back to rest one hand against his sternum and one on his belly and breathe until he was calm.

“Loki,” Riddick said quietly into the dark room, his voice low and ragged. “What the hell am I supposed to do now?”

 

++++

 

“What in any hell am I supposed to do with all this?” Loki asked, aghast, as he turned to survey the vast cavern filled with equipment.

The guardian chuckled. “Does a general command every one of his soldiers individually?”

“Then I invite you to point me to my command staff.”

“Ah, you've progressed to demanding staff. This is an improvement, one supposes.”

Loki narrowed his eyes. “You've clearly been alone a long time.”

“Without doubt. Now, if you will follow the illuminated line, you will find a seat. Your command center, if you like.”

Loki grumbled as he walked, following the line of light around the curve of the cavern to a cushioned reclining chair. A pair of finely filigreed wire gloves dangled over the arms of the chair, and a filigreed headpiece hung over the top.

Loki frowned. “These are beautiful work,” he said, stroking his fingers down the length of one glove. “But oddly familiar looking.”

“If you will make yourself comfortable…”

He sighed. “So this is an immersive interface. Do you have any control over it?”

“Only initially, to end the session as needed. If you achieve rapport, you will have complete control.”

Loki sighed again, and settled in the chair. He picked up one glove and drew it on, flexing his fingers within it. The fine wire warmed and moved against his skin like silk. He drew the other one on, then grimly reached up and settled the headpiece in place.

His vision went black, then white, then black scattered with multicolored stars and Loki turned and found himself suspended in space, looking down upon Furia from orbit.

From here, the scarring of war was obvious. The Necromongers must have bombarded the planet from space. It was easy enough to drop rocks into a gravity well, especially once you'd achieved orbit.

He let himself fall to the edge of an ocean. He could feel plenty of life within the water, out in the deeps, less so closer to the edges of the continents. There wasn't much complex life on land, of course.

The verges, he thought. That was the place to start. Coaxing the spread of simple plants, and then simple animal life, out of the ocean and pushing inland. The patterns of ocean currents and trade winds overlaid his vision, and he felt his fingers twitch at the need to start.

“Guardian?”

There was no answer, and he turned his attention sharply to the location deep in the planetary crust where his body lay.

He opened his eyes and sat up. “Guardian?”

A faint hum of machinery rose and faded away, and, as Loki looked around, he understood the purpose and use of everything in the cavern. He concentrated briefly and a glass of cold water rose from a small table next to his chair. He wondered how long ago the Necromonger attack had occurred and found the answer neatly presented in his mind, as if he'd simply remembered it.

He dropped back into the chair with a sigh. “Rapport. You utter bastard.”

The guardian had been a Furian mind, a reluctant volunteer who had given up his body to endure over the destruction of his world and his people, to guard the all-important cache of technology and life vaults, and to seek someone who could rebuild. He could not be a physical presence and survive, and he could not rebuild without a physical presence.

“All those years without going completely insane.” Loki made a gesture of respect, touching his heart, his forehead, and his mouth. “May your journey be brief and easy, and may you find all you hoped for at its end. I will ensure that your name will be remembered as long as there are Furians to speak it.” Loki sighed again and contemplated the work ahead of him. “You fucker.”

 

++++

 

“Vaako.” Riddick gestured him into the gym, glaring at everyone else until they cleared out.

“Do you wish to spar, Lord Marshall?”

“Tell me about Furia.”

The Commander General frowned. “What information do you require about a dead world?”

“Its location.”

“We do not keep records of the worlds we leave behind.”

Riddick shoved him to the wall, forearm braced against his throat. “You know where it is,” he growled.

Vaako stared at him, calculation and something else in his eyes. He dropped his gaze. “You mean to find it,” he said softly. “Your home world. Even though the former Lord Marshall left nothing there. Do you intend to turn our fleet back in this search?”

Riddick assessed him, then lowered his arm and stepped back. “No. A single small ship, and a guide. That's all I want.”

“All you want.”

Riddick's mouth twisted. “Of what you can give me, yes. And you'll take over as Lord Marshall, and lead your people to Threshold and the Underverse.”

Vaako’s chin lifted. “I would have followed you there.”

Riddick laid a hand gently against Vaako’s face, thumb caressing that tempting mouth. “That was never one of our options.”

Vaako closed his eyes, lips moving slightly against Riddick's thumb. In another universe, it might have been the ghost of a kiss. Then he was straightening, pushing away from the wall, and Riddick, briskly.

“You will take Commander Krone. I will wait until well after you've left to announce your…abdication.”

Riddick nodded and watched Vaako turn and leave, back straight, purpose in his stride. A man who accepted responsibility and made his choices. A good man, even under the weight of fanaticism.

Riddick had thought himself immune to regret, and he’d run painfully into that self-delusion with Loki. Then he’d assumed he'd given Loki the corner on that particular market, and here he was again, sure as the universe believed in patterns.

“‘Til Underverse come, Lord Marshall,” he murmured, and headed for the ship bay and Furia.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Furia vs Furya? That question's been raised. There's enough back and forth IRL that I decided not to choose. I started out writing Furia for whatever reason and, frankly, I'm lazy enough to not want to go back and change all the occurrences.
> 
> FIGHT ME


	6. Dragon Teeth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki is on Furia and Riddick is trying to get there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still dancing through Riddick's canon for the most part - honestly not sure what I must've accidentally ingested that made me think it'd be a neat exercise to try to weave a fic through two different canons without seriously transgressing either.  
> And this chapter is still more plot than porn - I also don't know why my brain said “nope, gonna make an actual story out of this” rather than just running with straight smut…
> 
> Soon though. Soon they will be physically together again. 
> 
> ::rubs hands together gleefully::
> 
> .

 

_…few as they are in this universe, they stand in my sight like stars..._

Loki heard the guardian’s words over and over again as he worked to rebuild Furia’s ecosystems. Whether he lacked the resources or just didn't have the knack, he was frustrated by _his_ inability to see the remaining Furians. He was especially frustrated by his inability to see Riddick.

Their bond remained strong, though he didn't dare risk sending more of himself along it. He was alone on Furia and there was no recourse now should he need help.

He did surprise himself with how well he adapted to the solitude despite missing Riddick like the pain from a phantom limb, judging that it was because he was busy all the time, working as much as the equipment would allow him. The systems with which he had come into rapport would only accept so many deferments of the alarms that notified him of his physical body’s needs. Eventually they would simply shut down to force him to eat, move, and sleep.

Furia itself surprised him with an eagerness with which he could barely keep up.  Life burgeoned at the slightest prodding and pieces of ecosystems clicked into place with an ease that occasionally alarmed him.

And, at long intervals, he would pause in his labors to hang in orbit, his back to the world he was fostering, and simply stare out at the stars, searching among the lights for some particular spark, some sign that those he sought could be reached.

_…they stand in my sight like stars..._

Perhaps the guardian had gone somewhat mad after all. Though he had reached out to take Loki easily enough…

 

****

 

Riddick, as he fell, knew he was going to die. Vaako had betrayed him, sending him to a world that was not Furia, and Krone had ambushed him. While Riddick had killed everyone but Krone, he _hadn't_ expected the asshole to destroy the cliff Riddick had been standing on.

Vaako’s betrayal both enraged him and filled him with despair. He'd hoped (and what a damn stupid move that had been) to find Loki, to pick up the pieces of a potential life. He'd reached out for something he wanted more than breathing (even knowing better) and now he was going to die. _As long as we're both alive_ , he’d told Loki long years ago. Loki had managed to come back to him from some form of death and yet Riddick had allowed himself to get distracted enough to let a fucking _Necromonger_ ambush him.

The impacts of boulders as he fell among them pummeled him towards unconsciousness, but even as the universe closed its fist around him, he blindly reached out and thought he saw a glimpse of Loki's shocked face before there was nothing but darkness.

 

****

 

Loki spent one long day pondering and tweaking a wide stripe of wetland across the edge of a continent, a little bored with the easy way the ecological pieces assembled under his direction.

He found he was touching his chest restlessly - an odd tremor shivered there, as if the bond was under siege, and then suddenly, fury and despair shook the braid, followed by a spreading chill that terrified him. He threw his arms out, grasping at the life of the planet itself and funneling it into the bond in a surge that left him nearly unconscious. He saw an orange sky, falling rocks, and felt impacts like massive hammers pounding him into darkness.

When Loki opened his eyes, the control room swam a bit, equipment and lights dancing in and out of focus. He examined the bond closely while his other senses reeled and panted in relief when he was satisfied that it was still extant, faintly warm, though more than a touch painful.

Something had happened to Riddick, something involving a landslide and a fall. But he lived, for now. Loki sagged back into the control chair and rubbed at his chest, clenching his jaw, still feeling an echo of that rage and despair.

Abruptly, the thought that he could draw on Riddick's world in case of need terrified him and he fumbled back into rapport to check on his work. There was no scar of lifelessness marring the surface, no swath of destruction as he'd feared. Some of the wetlands he'd been working on were a little leaner in life than before, but it appeared he'd done no lasting damage. He pulled back out of rapport wearily and lay trembling in the control chair for a while before dragging himself away to eat and sleep.

The next day, exhausted and heart-sick, furious with his inability to reach a living Furian, he took one of the shaft transports up to the surface in person, rather than through rapport. He stepped through the wetlands carefully, passing along tiny bits of drier ground until he found somewhere large enough for him to lay down.

He stared up at the stars, blinking slowly and taking in the scents of the swampy land around him, the warm and damp breeze, the skitter of an army of small crawling armored things surrounding him…

“I am not dinner,” he announced, not taking his eyes away from the spill of stars overhead. The tiny army rustled around him, individuals darting forward only to back off hastily when he pushed himself up on his elbows to survey them. “Bugger off. I'm tired, you little pests.”

They rustled closer and closer, more and more daring as he did nothing physical to disturb them. Even more were arriving from the edges of the grassy hummock he was resting on, clearly drawn by the prospect of a bigger meal than they'd ever experienced before.

Loki sighed. “So even the Furian wildlife has no manners. I'll remember that.” He pushed himself to his feet wearily and the little bastards scattered.

Loki climbed on top of the transport to lay and watch the stars undisturbed.

_…in my sight like stars…_

 

****

 

Riddick was actually shocked to wake up. Something was biting his fingers and he grabbed it, held it until it stopped pulsing against his grip. Then he was aware of pain and thirst, was aware that he was broken and bleeding, needed water, shelter, time…

Survival first, he thought as he crawled toward water. Then revenge. And then, if he could, Loki.

 

****

 

Loki lay on his bed in his warm room deep in the planet’s crust, staring up at the wooden ceiling. He realized, after several hours, that he was visually tracing the lines of woodgrain up and down individual planks endlessly in an attempt not to see flashes of a hot and orange world, boulders tumbling around him in slow motion, the sickening collisions of living flesh and bone against jagged and unyielding rock, falling forever into a black and bottomless void.

The braided bond was warm but it ached, stuttered pulses of pain echoing along it. Loki didn't know how to help, couldn't directly soothe…hmm. If pain was coming down the line to him…

He stripped quickly, wishing for a bathtub. Maybe later. For now, he stretched out on the soft bed, silky coverlet sliding against the skin of his back, and writhed slowly against it, paying close attention to the rich feel of it against his skin. He brought his hands to his face, lightly moving his fingertips over his closed eyes, along his cheekbones, stroking his lips and kissing his own fingertips as he would if it were Riddick’s touch on his mouth. He concentrated on the feel of his hands on his throat, petting along his collarbones, a little pressure to remind him of the fragility of the long slender bones, how they nestled in the sockets of his shoulders.

He stroked his hands down his sides, letting his fingers ride the undulating surface of his ribs to his stomach, remembering Riddick's hands there, holding him, soothing him. He sighed out a breath, eyes closed and lids relaxed, as he let his hands slide down to smooth over his thighs, bringing his feet up flat against the bed and lifting his hips to hold his body up in a line from his shoulders to his knees.

Loki traced his fingertips back up the underside of his thighs, over his backside, to tease the sensitive area at the base of his spine. A shiver rippled over him and his hips shifted a little as his cock stirred.

He blinked and tilted his head down to stare at himself. He hadn't felt a single flutter of desire since he'd been on Furia, since he'd been separated from his predator. He really hadn't expected the petting to stir anything at all beyond comfort.

Thoughtfully, he let himself relax back onto the bed, one hand drifting up to rest on his chest, and the other tentatively cupping himself, cradling his still-soft cock and balls, fondling them almost gingerly, a soothing caress.

The painful pulses down the braid had diminished somewhat, and he made no effort to rouse himself to desire, simply petting and massaging himself, comforting and gentle.

Loki drifted to sleep curled on his side, holding himself lazily and thinking of Riddick.

 

In rapport, Loki sat on the edge of a bluff that overlooked a lush river valley. It was nearing time to begin introducing more complexity in that ecosystem, and there were tens of thousands or more like it around the world in various interlocking stages. The oceans were well ahead of the land and juggling so many different intricacies was starting to wear on him.

After some consideration, he had the systems bring transports and supplies to the surface and created caches, some in gigantic caverns, some in cliff faces, some in neat domes tucked against hillsides. Preparing for people. For colonists. For a Furian re-colonization that he seemed helpless to initiate.

And then, as usual, he took himself to high orbit through the rapport, staring out at the mocking stars that burned steadily without an atmosphere between them and him. The universe was empty of any beacons, any particular pull aside from the stretch of the bond that might as well extend into trackless infinity.

Loki gave in and retreated back to his body, opening his eyes listlessly to watch the busy lights dance across the equipment. Soon he would _need_ assistance, other people who could mesh with the systems and take over many of the intricately entwined tasks that increasing ecological complexity was piling up at a staggering rate.

Sighing, he took himself to his rooms, slowly eating a light meal and then settling in bed to stroke and pet at himself, sending comfort down the braid in a warm surge as he did every night now, replaying all his encounters with Riddick, remembering the rough rumble of his voice, the curious tenderness of those callused hands when they weren't holding him down and leaving delicious bruises. Remembering the feel of muscle shifting under silken or scarred skin. The salty tang of sweat over Riddick's own warm, lightly spiced scent, the male muskiness at the crease of his hip and thigh, rising from his pubic hair, from the warmth behind his balls.

In the past weeks, Loki’d begun to show distinct signs of arousal during his coddling sessions, though he still had no desire to bring himself to orgasm.

He could guess that Riddick was slowly healing from his injuries, a sense of greater ease bleeding down the braid. He sent what comfort he could generate, trying to avoid feeling lonely, stirring himself with only pleasant sensations. He kept reaching along the bond to make contact, but there seemed to be too much distance between them to allow any real sense of contact.

 

****

 

Riddick settled in to heal, the ruins around him reasonably safe, if a little worrying. It wasn't the first time he'd come across abandoned settlements in his life, but ruins generally existed as ruins because of attack, and the markings carved into the walls were making him twitch.

He was healing faster than he thought he should, and he found himself touching his chest frequently, seeking the sense of comfort that seemed to emanate along the braided bond. He suspected Loki’s influence in both. Sometimes he simply rested, trying to set aside the throb and ache of healing bone and the busy painful itch of wounds closing, and just pictured Loki laying in a soft bed somewhere safe in the same position, lightly petting at himself, thinking of Riddick.

He wanted Loki's presence so much it made his jaw clench; it wasn't even directly sexual, though that thought was making itself slowly evident as his body healed. No, he just wanted Loki, missed holding him, teasing him.

And, all right, yes, he missed holding Loki down, pushing into the grip of that slick warmth inside him, Loki's helpless noises, his eager compliance with anything Riddick had ever demanded of him…

Fuck. Riddick felt the twinges in his shoulder joint and wrist as he opened his trousers and wrapped his hand around his hardening cock, ignored the stabbing ache in his leg, all the deep bruising and strains, focusing on his hand and the drag of loose skin, friction building slowly as he teased himself, breathing lightly until he made the mistake of remembering Loki's mouth around him, that wet heat and his clever tongue working against him, the delighted humming that vibrated so deliciously, and suddenly Riddick was coming, his hips jerking in surprise.

He barely had time to let slip a harsh startled noise before healing muscles all over started to cramp in protest, obliterating his orgasm as he struggled to move and twist and stretch everything he could to make the cramping stop.

He eventually lay curled on his side, choked curses and laughter shaking him as he wrapped his arms around himself, trying to balance anger and amusement while his body fought the return of desire and his mind wanted nothing more than to try that again.

 

****

 

Loki found his hand drifting from its resting spot on the bed to touch his mouth. Abruptly he missed his predator so strongly that his stomach clenched and he exhaled harshly. He _wanted_. He craved that powerful hand tipping his head back, the little growl Riddick let slip whenever his mouth was near Loki's throat. He wanted that broad warmth at his back in a bath or tangled in bed after sex. He wanted Riddick spread out before him, ceding control, however temporarily, and allowing Loki to take his pleasures of him.

Loki closed his eyes and let his thumb drift over his bottom lip, mouth falling open slightly. He licked his lips, remembering the sharp bite of Riddick's blood on his tongue, the faint raised lines of the cuts he'd placed on that warm, spicy skin. He remembered the feel of Riddick's shiv in his hand, the _trust_ Riddick had offered him, to lay under him knowing blood would be drawn.

His cock stirred, sensation beginning to pool in his groin, in the small of his back. He took himself gently in hand and stroked lightly, watching himself.

He pictured Riddick's strong hands on his thighs, sly smirk stretching his mouth before he lowered it to take Loki in, and Loki's cock hardened quickly, twitching in his grip.

The pleasure thrumming along his nerves from his hands on his own body wound around his memories of Riddick's mouth and skin and hands, the weight of him pressing Loki down, and the low roughness of his voice.

He curled on his side around himself, one hand flat on his chest and the other beginning to stroke his cock faster. He panted, the arousal building until he was shivering with it, toes curling as he held it back, testicles tight, until it felt like he was trying to hold back the tide.

He held it until he could almost feel a strong hand on the back of his neck, a warm mouth moving against the pressure point at the corner of his jaw, and Riddick's deep voice murmuring to him, telling him to come.

He cried out as he climaxed, shuddering, and felt the force of it flex down the braided connection, warm surges that echoed the surges of semen pumping from him. The thought of long-distance ejaculation made him snort, then laugh raggedly and uncontrollably until he was panting again, holding his stomach and trying not to roll into the wet spot.

Relaxed fully for the first time in months, he took himself back to the chair and slipped into rapport. Later, when he had done enough work to feel tired and yet didn't want to go to bed, he hung in orbit, staring at the stars again.

The cold mocking stars suddenly made him feel impossibly lonely and, following some fanciful notion, he reached down to the world, gathered up his sense of it, wrapped it around himself in layer after layer like a child curling up in a blanket on a frozen night and glared through it at the stars.

There weren't many Furians - maybe a few hundred in all - but to the _world’s_ sight, they were as bright as novae.

 

Loki sought the closest - a grim woman who called herself Kali. She was a brilliant mechanic on a run-down space station near the fringes of human space, and the small group of pirates who ran the station held her five children as hostages. Loki whispered into her dreams, and then into her waking mind, and led her through the station in the still watches of the night to slaughter the pirates, collect her children, and steal a tiny ship.

He placed them in a cavern shelter overlooking the river valley, where the children could climb down and run in the tall flowering grass to hunt the small burrowers that lived in the roots. Kali he set to introducing the larger grazers that belonged in such an environment, and the fish and other predators to the river system. She and her oldest daughter also began to experiment with building different types of dwellings.

After that, he reached out to Blue, a silent and gentle medic on a mercenaries’ world who'd had his tongue cut out long years previously. He would slip out during his sleeping shifts to indulge in some of the bloodiest vigilantism Loki had ever seen, while tears ran down his face. Loki promised him solitude and growing things, and directed him to stow away on a slaver ship and use an escape pod when he was close. Once on Furia, Loki tucked him into a medical unit to regrow his tongue, and after, he turned Blue loose in the fledgling forests, allowing him his silence and isolation, and giving him a tangle of predators and prey to unravel within the different forest levels.

Tomas was a champion gladiator on a privileged world, pampered and feared. His owner kept his sister Mika on a leash at his side. Loki found Mika to be a very quick study, and she freed Tomas from his locked suite with a bloody knife in hand and a fierce grin. They took their owner’s ship and three other Furian gladiators from that world before making their way home.

Loki settled the female ex-gladiator, Siana, in the river valley with Kali and her children, placed the two men, Ti and Kheridhan, to oversee the coastal habitats and the shallows out to the edge of the deep ocean, and sent Mika and Tomas out in their ship to bring other Furians home as he contacted them.

Once they'd collected all the Furians he could find, he settled the two of them in the orbital facilities to organize the planetary defense.

Every so often, he encouraged them all to come together for a day, choosing different habitats and locations each time.  He intended this to be a social gathering, the basis for forming small communities. He hadn't counted on the Furians themselves.

Most of them were second- or third-generation survivors of families or individuals who had made it off the planet before the attack. The Necromongers had been thorough in their hunt, either converting or destroying those they had found. All had been scarred by violence or slavery, and even the handfuls of children who arrived were quiet and grim.

But Loki had brought them _home,_ given them a world to rebuild, and given them others of their kind. They fitted themselves together easily, moving between habitats and forming groups, settling into the work and the world with a quiet and intent joy.

He found them to be compellingly competent, frequently brilliant, and fast learners, if stoic beyond belief. Of all the adults, Mika was the only one who still had the ability to laugh somewhat freely upon arrival.

Loki was delighted when Blue became another. He kept an eye on all the projects, and all the Furians. Silent Blue had never come to the community meetings, was never willing to leave his forests. But he was visited occasionally by the others, one at a time, at long intervals. There were never any words spoken; the visitor would knock gently at Blue’s door and raise an inquiring eyebrow. Blue would indicate a project, the visitor would dive in for a day or so, then nod and leave. Weaving him into the group with the finest and loosest of fibres, giving him connection without any demands.

Kali’s oldest daughter, Krissa, arrived at his home one evening, nodded to Blue, and began working in his kitchen. Blue raised a somewhat startled eyebrow but went back to work. She set dinner in front of him later and then curled up in a chair with her tablet. Loki could see what she was working on and smiled.

In the morning, she rose out of the blankets she'd rolled herself in and made breakfast, then stepped outside. Blue watched her with a mildly furrowed brow, then followed her out.

“Which tree?” she asked quietly, looking around.

Blue looked startled at her voice and held his hands in a questioning gesture.

“You're working on the big predators for this habitat. Living at ground level might not be safe soon. I've been drawing up plans for a treehouse.”

Blue looked delighted and gestured for her to hand him the tablet. He grinned at the whimsical yet thoroughly practical design she'd modeled and turned around to point at two massive trees growing somewhat close together.

Krissa nodded and set to work, organizing the building equipment and starting the support structure. Blue watched for a while, then slipped back inside his house to continue working on the habitat projects. Krissa glanced after him with a secret smile before turning her attention back to the construction.

The treehouse was done by sunset and Blue laughed out loud when he saw it, pulling Krissa in for a brief and skittish hug before climbing the steep stairs to explore. Krissa smiled her secret smile again and set the equipment to transferring his few pieces of furniture.

Before she left the next morning, he pulled her in for another hug and whispered “thank you” in her ear shyly.

She gave him a not-so-secret smile. “I'll see you soon,” she said quietly. “I'll stay longer, too.”

Blue blushed and laughed and fled up the stairs.

 

Loki brought home every Furian he could find. He couldn't find Riddick, though he knew his predator was out there somewhere.

Every day he worked side by side with Furians fascinating in their ranges of calm stoicism, quiet morbid humor, easy physicality, and capacity for sudden and whole-hearted violence.

Every night he lay in his bed and thought only of Riddick, stroking himself to arousal and reaching out as far along their bond as he could.

 

****

 

The return of Riddick's sexual urges mirrored the return of his admittedly twisted sense of humor. Though he was still furious, still vengeful, he managed something approaching what used to be his normal playfulness.

He toyed with the Mercs, even as he was aching to get his hands on a ship and get on with it. The longer it took on this hellhole, the further away the Necromonger fleet would be. But in the meantime, there were things to do, obstacles to overcome, assholes to kill. Better to be busy, really. He'd come to realize he didn't want to be bored anymore.

 

****

 

Loki knew, through the bond, that Riddick was taking more injuries, but at least they didn't seem life-threatening. With some careful experimentation, he set up a tiny semi-permanent link from the planet’s pool of life-stuff to funnel into the braided connection and thence to Riddick.

The connection itself was becoming a thing of immense beauty when Loki looked at it in rapport; an incredibly complex woven braid that shone and sparkled in different metallics and ghostly luminescences, shifting and re-weaving and pulsing with life.

Every evening he reached slightly further down it, stretching towards his distant predator. Every day, in rapport, he searched the stars, reaching a little farther, seeing a few more systems.

He maintained a constant awareness of it, alert for any changes he might read as any kind of message from his predator.

 

Kali gave him a sharp look the next time he visited the river valley. “You're looking discontent, O Numen.”

Loki gave her a sidelong glare. “Which couldn't possibly be caused by calling me that ridiculous title.”

“We took a vote last meeting. That's what we settled on.”

“Mmm. No.”

She raised a cool eyebrow and casually leaned back in her chair, crossing her fingers over her belly. “Stop us,” she invited.

Loki sighed. “If I had it to do over, I might've avoided all Furian entanglements to begin with.”

“Improbable.”

He bared his teeth at her and opened his mouth, only to be interrupted by the entrance of her youngest child, a boy of about five, who reminded Loki of a kitten - all prickly dignity and fierceness despite his uncoordinated growing limbs. He stormed over to Loki and wrapped around his knees, hiding his face and trying to stifle angry tears.

Loki glanced at Kali, unable to resist resting his hands on the boy’s head. The child murmured something incoherent into Loki's trousers.

Kali shrugged. “Khanda has discovered that his siblings are all big enough to ride the herd beasts but he is not.”

Loki looked down at the boy, struggling to compose himself in the face of disappointment. “Then Khanda and I shall have a lesson in stalking prey that his siblings will simply have to miss, yes?”

“Perhaps he will learn well enough to teach them at another time,” Kali said, her face stern but her eyes soft.

Khanda looked up at Loki, small damp face solemn, and nodded. “Please,” he said and Loki found himself helpless to resist.

 

After spending several satisfying hours teaching Khanda techniques to stalk small prey through the tall grasses, Loki returned to Kali’s home.

“You're good with Furian children,” she remarked as he stepped inside.

“They are easy children with which to be good,” he said with a slight smile.

“Just as well. Siana is building the crèches. We've decided on mass production.”

Loki frowned. “Using the genetic material from the caches in the planetary crust as well as your own?”

“Just so.”

“Is there a hurry to repopulate?”

“Even with the crèches, with a dozen or so children in each community every couple of years, we will be rebuilding a planetary population at glacial speeds. But we are vulnerable as long as we are numerically small.”

Loki stared out the window at the valley, herds moving lazily through the grasslands across the river.  Tiny darting avians flocked over them, feeding on the insects kicked up by the grazing beasts. His work, at least at the beginning. “Furia was destroyed by the Necromongers even with a full planetary population.”

Kali huffed a humorless laugh. “ _We_ are not our ancestors, O Numen. And our descendants will be more dangerous yet.”

He glanced at her and smiled. “Of that, I have no doubt. I look forward to it.”

“Speaking of descendants,” she said smoothly.

“My genetic material still seems to be primarily jötnar,” he said with an eyebrow, “though tweaked a bit. I'm still not sure how the Guardian brought me here and created a body for me, much less retained any vestige of my original makeup. But surely not something you want loose in your Furian population.”

“On the contrary, though we know you have no interest in actively breeding with any of us. We desire, and require, contributions from both you and your Riddick.”

Loki froze. “My Riddick…”

“Is he not? The Guardian left information all over the systems for other Furians to find. He was greatly taken with your Riddick. He had data copied from every network he could reach. And he was nearly delirious over you. You'd likely be embarrassed if you ever stumbled across his mentions of you.” Kali bared her teeth at him, amused.

“I…”

“Ha! Our Numen, speechless? Mark the calendar and set a holiday.”

“I'm trying to recall why I thought it necessary to retrieve you.”

“Something to do while you feathered a nest for your bondmate?”

Loki's mouth hung open.

Kali made a scornful noise. “You have been on your own for too long, frostchild. You have a world and a family now that means to keep you.” She surveyed him with satisfaction and nodded. “Now let us speak of ways to boost your reach so that we can retrieve your wayward bondmate.”

 

****

 

Riddick stood at the edge of the Threshold on a Necromonger ship, Krone dead at his feet. Vaako had brought the fleet to this point and had already crossed over. Riddick stared at the strange sight hanging in space before him; he hadn't intended to ever enter that bizarre-looking gash in space, but Vaako was in there and he was apparently the only one left with any knowledge of Furia.

Riddick exhaled almost silently, fighting to keep his shoulders from sagging. Lately it seemed like he was always one more step, one more obstacle, away from getting closer to what he wanted, and, as usual, he had very little choice in the matter. His equanimity, at a low since Loki's return anyway, had nearly run dry. He was leaning towards a primitive level of just killing everything in his way, and, historically, that hadn't worked out for him so well.

He returned to his small ship to sink into the seat and glare at the controls, unwilling, for the moment, to start entering a course into Threshold.

His hand strayed to his chest, fingers idly rubbing as he sat. There was the usual warmth, the very faint sense of Loki's well-being, a quiet certainty that his godling was alive and well and reasonably content. Riddick tilted his head and considered the bond, thought there might be a faint taste of loneliness woven in. Well, no surprise there.

He stared out at the Threshold, feeling a stronger and stronger reluctance to enter there, quickly growing strong enough that he closed his eyes and pressed both hands to his chest. He felt a surge along the bond and reached down it, shocked to feel a sensation like fingers twining into his. “Loki?” he whispered incredulously.

 _My predator. Finally._ A sense of utter satisfaction and aching want flooded him.

“Where…ah. There.” Riddick felt his orientation snap into place, stable and solid through the universe around him, a glowing silvery thread manifested through their braided bond.

_Can you see the way home?_

“Yes. How…”

Loki sighed, exasperated and fond. _Family. Ours. Don't ask right now. Just come home._

Home. Riddick blinked. “Furia?”

 _Yes._ Loki was already more distant-sounding. _You're far away. Hurry back._ The sensation of fingers against his began fading. _We_ _can't hold full contact at this distance._ The immediate sense of Loki’s presence dissolved, but a stronger warmth stayed in the braided bond, as well as a new and unerring sense of direction. And a teasing promise of reunion as he moved closer.

Loki. Furia.

Riddick's hands worked rapidly and surely on the navigational controls.

Time to go home.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> …aaaaaaand we're pretty much off canon now as of July 2019. Don't know if the Furia movie is ever gonna happen nor what happens to Riddick in it, so I'm just gonna run with their long-delayed happily-ever-after. That and lots of sex. Because of course lots of sex.


	7. Are We There Yet? No.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Look, space is a really big thing, okay?

 

 

“This damn ships’s not equipped for cryosleep.” An insubstantial hint of fingers against his mouth made Riddick growl, frustrated and fighting it.

_I’ll send Mika and Tomas to meet you in their ship._

“Not if there’re Mercs sniffing around the system. They’re needed where they are.”

_You’re still half a galaxy away. The closer you get, the more...physical...we will be able to be._

Riddick closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the pilot’s seat, taking several deep slow breaths. “I’m being impatient,” he admitted. “Stop reaching and go rest.”

_I needn’t yet. Kali and Te are training some of the others so there are half a dozen Furians tied into the systems now._

“I still can’t believe how much you’ve done.”

_I was able to use the systems your people left behind, and that only because of our bond. This has hardly been my accomplishment._

“I don’t trust modesty coming from you.” A tiny smile curled Riddick’s mouth.

A quiet laugh. _It has been a great deal of hard work and I am rather proud of my start, but your people have taken it from my hands and now it is breathtaking._

“My people? I thought you’d been adopted.”

_Adopted? No, absolutely not. Assimilated, perhaps. Incorporated? Subsumed?_

“Claimed,” Riddick said in a low growl.

An indrawn breath and a pause. _Gods’ blood, fly faster, my beast._

“Put your hands on yourself, civilized, and tell me what you’re doing.”

A wicked laugh. _I had rather tell you what I would be doing to you._

“Mmm. Then I guess it’s good that I’m sitting here naked.”

Loki’s voice lowered and Riddick felt the faintest brush across his stomach, a movement like a breath across his hips. _You make not even the slightest pretense of civilization, do you, Riddick?_

“Not much point,” he rumbled, stretching in the chair, then settling with his hand curled loosely around his cock. “My hand is no substitute for your mouth, Loki. I can’t wait until I can look down and see your lips wrapped around my dick and run my hands into all that dark hair.”

Loki’s laughter took Riddick by surprise. _Oh gods, Riddick, I’ve my hand on my prick, don’t stop, but I feel it is only fair to warn you the Guardian changed my coloration._

“What? Why?”

 _I’ve not a clue, but I’m now all warm pale skin and auburn hair. I still startle myself in mirrors._ Loki’s voice bubbled with amusement and Riddick marveled at the way Loki felt through the bond.

“Wait, you’re telling me you’ve got a pretty pink dick and red short-and-curlies? You’re a fire crotch?”

 _Do not think you can get away with that, you bastard! I will ruin you!_ The threat was somewhat undermined by Loki’s obvious mirth.

Riddick found himself grinning, a sparkling warmth spreading through him. “You already have, you bastard. I’m gonna die soft and sissified, surrounded by flowers and furry pets, staring longingly at your pretty ginger curls.”

Loki laughed until he choked. _My_ ** _gods_** _, Riddick. Never mind, slow down. It’s going to take me some time to completely redecorate with bright colors and soft fabrics. I’ll get the flowers planted right away, though._

Riddick snorted. “But no pets?”

A hint of fond exasperation. _I don’t know what in any hell could be safely domesticated around here. Even the prey animals aren’t exactly cuddly. Frankly, the wildlife here is just like the rest of you Furians, and I can’t see fitting you out in a collar and training you to come up on your haunches to beg for a treat._

“Not fucking likely.”

_Essentially my point. So we’ll have to make do with lots of furs thrown around your frail and delicate frame._

Riddick roared with laughter. “Loki...”

 _Hmm, we’ve rather strayed from our purpose. And the Furians are dropping out of rapport._ Loki’s voice grew a little fainter as he spoke.

“Tomorrow,” Riddick said. “We’ll torture each other tomorrow.”

 _My beast_. Loki’s voice faded entirely, but Riddick could still feel an warm effervescence along the braided bond when he laid his hand against his chest.

“Loki,” he murmured, fighting down a soft smile.

 

Loki came out of rapport trying to fight down his own soft smile. Kali was waiting with her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised.

“No,” she said. “You’ve failed this time, too. You’re both going to be disgusting when he’s here, aren’t you?”

“That would be a matter of opinion. Would you apply the same description to Krissa and Blue?”

Kali curled her lip.

“So, yes,” Loki said.

“I don’t indulge in this romantic nonsense,” she said sternly.

Loki raised an eyebrow at her. “Kheridhan,” he said, naming one of the male gladiators. Her chin lifted infinitesimally and Loki smiled. “Right. No romantic nonsense.” He nodded gravely. “And you’re _not_ pregnant. With Kheridhan’s child. At all.”

She snarled to cover the blush as Loki laughed at her. “I will make your memorial splendid after I kill you,” she growled.

Loki grinned at her indulgently. “I’ve only ever let Riddick defeat me. None of the rest of you stand much of a chance, but your children will do better after I train them.”

Kali’s eyes narrowed. “We would like to put that to a test, O Numen.”

“Fine, but after I win, that ridiculous title gets retired, understand?”

“ _That_ is not in my hands alone,” she smirked. “I’ll let the others know to get to the training grounds.”

 

Loki was, after all, a god of mischief if not outright cruelty, and so he stepped on to the training grounds wearing nothing but very snug, very elastic, squarecut shorts in a deep forest green that matched his eyes.

Only the Furians’ basic courtesy and knowledge of his bond with Riddick had kept them from hounding him constantly for breeding opportunities and, in his current mood, he had no problem with creating any distractions possible, including using his frankly magnificent body against them. Not that he’d _need_ distractions, but it was always good to stay in practice.

Ti, Kheridhan, and Siana met him on the training grounds in their old gladiatorial gear and Kheridhan burst out laughing. “She _did_ piss you off, didn’t she?”

Loki gave his staff a deft twirl and smiled at him. “As good an excuse to exercise as any,” he said with a smirk.

“With us all watching with our tongues hanging out,” Siana said, grinning. “You really think you’re going to wipe the floor with us? We have _some_ training and a certain amount of innate ability, after all.”

Loki laughed. “My dear infant, without any desire to minimize your training _or_ abilities, I have been at this for some several of your lifespans, at least. If I’m being generous.” He gestured widely.  “Come at me singly or in multiples, as you like.”

Ti gestured around the arena at the gathering Furians. “Does that invitation stand for all?”

Loki’s mouth quirked. “Do we agree to no distance weapons?”

“Of course!”

They almost looked offended at the thought and Loki laughed, taking a stance with the staff grounded. “Then let any who wish come to dance.”

As he swept into motion against the three attacking gladiators, Loki learned a new thing about his bond with Riddick. The connection warmed and a feeling of amused interest came down it, followed by a ghostly sensation of sharing his focus. Loki’s already considerable reflexes sped incrementally, his instincts sharpened, and his attacks became both more efficient and more playful.

His fierce joy and Riddick’s amused savagery had Loki defeating dozens of Furians with a lazy smile and easy grace, and, after a few hours, Blue laughingly conceded on behalf of his people.

“Enough, Loki! We admit your superiority in personal combat!” The once-grim medic grinned widely at him.

Kali, breathing heavily, narrowed her eyes at Loki. “Not _just_ him, I think.”

Blue snorted. “Doesn’t matter if he had company or not, it was _his_ body we were fighting. I doubt Riddick gave more than cursory assistance.”

Loki inclined his head. “More a matter of interest and awareness than a direct presence.” He tilted his head thoughtfully. “I believe he’s actually _asleep_ ,” he said, laughing as he touched his chest. He grinned at Kali. “I also believe there was the matter of retiring a nonsensical title...”

“No,” Krissa said, coming forward to bandage a cut on Blue’s arm. “You need something to keep your ego in bounds until your mate arrives.”

Loki frowned at her mildly. “I thought I liked you.”

She looked at him clear-eyed, calm but with mischief lurking under the surface. “You do. You just don’t like to be crossed. Unfortunate, since you live with Furians.”

Loki rolled his eyes. “You speak an undeniable truth, little knife.” He felt Riddick’s attention begin to drift and grinned fiercely. “But I must away for now; I’ve matters that require my attention.”

Kali snorted and opened her mouth and Kheridhan earned Loki’s eternal regard by wrapping a hand over her mouth and whispering into her ear. She turned a slightly duskier shade and dropped her gaze as Kheridhan inclined his head to Loki and drew her away.

Krissa made an amused sound in her throat and tugged on Blue’s arm. “Our turn,” she said. “Good day, O Numen. Our regards to your mate.”

Blue looked delightedly scandalized and snickered quietly as they strode off.

Loki shook his head ruefully, thoughts skittering away from notions of fate or destiny. He’d not been looking for a family, but he’d found one, or been sucked into one with the approximate resistibility of a neutron star.

He rubbed at his chest thoughtfully, then grinned again as he began to imagine Riddick’s hands on his body and felt a certain focusing of that ghostly attention.

“Let me get to my bed, beast, and I’ll give you something to focus your dreams on,” he said softly as he walked off.

 

Riddick’s dreams shifted from fighting fantasies to, inevitably, sex with Loki. He wondered, in a sudden drift of uncharacteristic melancholy, if he would ever actually be, fully physically, in the same place as Loki.

Loki glanced down at himself and gave Riddick a wry look as he stood naked before him. “Your fears are affecting our sex life, such as it is at the moment.”

“You're not all the way here,” Riddick said, frowning at Loki’s somewhat see-through form. “Like before, you’re _here_ , but…tell me what this feels like.” He reached out to caress Loki’s side and clenched his hand hard on Loki's ribcage, feeling the bizarre sensation that his fingers had pressed _into_ Loki’s body, were existing in the same space at the same time.

“That doesn't hurt?” Riddick asked, concern harsh under his voice.

“No…I…” Loki twisted a little to test the sensation. “As if I'm only partially solid.”

Riddick stroked along Loki's side again, pressed his hand flat, applied pressure, tried again with fingers stiffened to penetrate. “Surface tension.” He dropped his hand down again. “We have the weirdest sex.”

Loki snickered and collapsed onto him on the bed, beginning to laugh helplessly.

“Dammit, Loki…”

Loki laughed even harder at the exasperated amusement in Riddick's growling complaint. He was still laughing when Riddick rolled them over, pressing Loki into the bed and nipping at his throat.

Dreamlike, he blinked and they were lying on their sides, fingers tangled, Loki’s erection pressed into his thigh, and his godling’s hand lightly teasing Riddick’s shaft.

“Riddick.”

“Mmm?”

“On your stomach. I've a question to ask you.”

Riddick grinned. “I need to be face down so you can ask me something?”

Loki opened his mouth over Riddick's shoulder, touching his teeth lightly to Riddick's skin, tongue teasing circles. Riddick made a slight noise, bringing one hand around to cup Loki’s head and then Loki bit down viciously, licking at the hot taste of blood. The pain was distant and insubstantial, but the pleasure made Riddick’s cock twitch and leak. He grunted, a shudder moving his body against Loki, but his hand remained gentle against Loki's head.

When Loki moved his mouth away, Riddick exhaled  and shifted over to lay on his stomach beside Loki, who hummed approval and moved to straddle his back, leaning down and writhing a little against the heat of Riddick's skin, tracing the shifts of tension in the muscles of Riddick’s back with his fingertips. Loki settled so that he could press his mouth to Riddick’s shoulder, touching the bite again from behind, stroking the flat of his tongue over it roughly.

Riddick shifted his hips restlessly against the bed, time-jumps confusing Loki’s position on top of him, where his hands were touching, the sting of the bite mark moving from shoulder to shoulder and once he felt the trickle of blood down his shoulder blade as Loki’s mouth whispered violence against the skin next to his spine. Riddick’s tension built in his jaw and neck, and he knew he was suppressing the urge to make sounds, knew Loki wanted him to, but this felt unreal, felt magnificent; he wanted more but he knew this was fragile, would tear apart if he even tried to hold on to it.

Dream-Loki moved his mouth to brush against Riddick's ear. “Have you been with anyone since me?”

Riddick growled, suddenly irritated, a fractious motion rippling across his shoulders. Loki bit at Riddick's shoulder again, drawing fresh beads of blood, and Riddick growled again through gritted teeth.

“Riddick.” Loki was insistent. “Did you fuck anyone else?” He licked at the bite, tongue working the small wounds.

An exasperated noise deep in Riddick's throat. “No.”

Loki's mouth moved in a smile against Riddick's skin. “And did you allow anyone else inside you?”

Riddick barked a rough laugh. “Not fucking likely.” Riddick shifted his hips under Loki, trying to push the irritation away, trying not to turn and hold Loki down and bury himself deeply, afraid to break whatever spell Loki was weaving.

Loki moved to lay on his side next to Riddick, nudging Riddick’s legs apart, pressing a finger into him, not quite dry, but Riddick couldn’t care where the slick came from as he tried to muffle a guttural noise against the bed.

“Is _that_ how you want it, my beast? Shall I force those noises out of you?”

Riddick snarled, his hands twisting the bed linens into knots.

Loki leaned close to Riddick's ear. “This is a game I will delight in winning,” he whispered, pulling his hand back and pushing a second finger in beside the first. Riddick exhaled roughly, clenching around his fingers, refusing him easy entry. He groaned as Loki pushed in hard, forcing a stretch that he knew would feel like a burn in reality.

“So recalcitrant, Riddick. This _is_ how you want it then?”

Riddick snarled again, a restless twitch against the bed, and then he was starting to push himself up. Loki shoved him back against the bed as he slid on top of him, forcing his thighs apart and holding his cock to press it into Riddick, the dream lending that slight lubrication between them, enough, but the friction made Riddick hiss and tense under Loki.

Loki slapped the side of Riddick's hip, hard. “Open for me!”

That jolted a deep surprised noise out of Riddick, and then he pressed back against Loki, letting him sink to the hilt.

Loki kept his hips pressed hard, holding himself deep as he dropped his forehead to touch Riddick's shoulder. “Gods, Riddick.”

Riddick took a ragged breath. “Loki.” He felt the dream shudder around them and breathed out, relaxing under the weight of Loki, the lean muscular length of him warm against his back, the heat pinning him open.

Loki lightly touched his mouth to Riddick's shoulder, moving his mouth over the blood still wet on his skin. He lapped at it, murmuring of hunger, of intimacy, of knowing the taste of Riddick's substance, what pulsed through his heart and veins. Riddick felt that intangible link between them flare again and he turned his head and Loki transferred his attentions to Riddick’s mouth, sucking at Riddick's tongue and licking at his teeth before moving back to the bite on his shoulder.

He seemed oddly reluctant to move in Riddick, preferring instead to keep him pinned while he tasted him. Riddick made a deep noise that managed to be both demanding and pleading, shifting under him with each breath, wary of waking up.

“Shhh,” he whispered into Riddick's skin. Riddick attempted to still himself, shivers moving under his skin, fingers twitching against the knotted sheets. Loki rolled his hips gently against Riddick, a little surge out and back in, forcing a noise from deep in Riddick's throat.

Loki set his mouth against the bite and tasted Riddick's blood again, beginning a fierce rhythm, the hard heat of him inside Riddick matching the wet red heat leaking down the curve of his shoulder.

Riddick's moans and uncontrollable shudders were part pleasure and part a result of the twisting and almost painful pull somewhere deep inside his chest, a hollow filling with Loki's essence even as Loki drove himself into Riddick’s body. He felt the dream stabilize around them as Loki wove them together.

Riddick moaned in relief and pushed himself back against Loki's thrusts, opening himself to Loki as Loki bit savagely again at his shoulder, re-opening the wounds yet again and deepening them. Riddick let slip a rough cry, hand slipping down towards his own hips, hungry for any touch on his aching cock.

“No,” Loki growled. “Not yet.”

Riddick laughed harshly. “It’s my dream, civilized. My hand or yours - your choice.”

Loki echoed his laugh. “But that’s just the point, my beast. Nobody gets to finish in a dream. We can only approach it, and wake.”

“Fuck that,” Riddick said and shoved Loki away, flipping onto his back and taking that gorgeous dark auburn hair in his hands and dragging him back over.  Loki kissed him, hard, biting at his lips, then slid down him to pull Riddick's cock into his mouth, sucking fiercely until Riddick came with a ragged cry.  Loki milked him, swallowing down every drop, working Riddick's shaft until he tugged at Loki's hair, pulling him away.

Loki swarmed up him to kneel astride Riddick’s chest, thumbing Riddick’s mouth open and furiously working his shaft. Riddick set his hands on Loki’s hips and dragged him nearer, closing his lips around the head and licking underneath as Loki braced over him on one hand, his hips trembling as he twisted his hand and came with a cry, filling Riddick’s mouth with a taste that wasn’t quite as he remembered it. He swallowed, sucking harder until Loki pulled away with a tiny sound of discomfort and collapsed onto his chest to breathe.

“So am I dreaming or not, Loki?” Riddick growled softly into the curls brushing against his mouth.

He felt the smile curve against his skin. “Of course you are.” Loki turned his head to kiss at Riddick’s shoulder where there was no trace of a bloody bite mark. “But dreams apparently work a little differently for us. For which I am appropriately grateful.”

“‘Appropriately grateful?’ Christ, civilized, I can’t wait to hear how you describe it after I’ve lived inside you for a few days and neither of us can walk.”

Loki laughed against his collarbone as he faded further, and Riddick reflexively grabbed at him.

“I’m always gonna hate that,” he snarled, forcing himself to relax. Loki’s look was both sympathetic and mischievous and Riddick tensed again.

“The only way out is through, my beast. Have you never heard of exposure therapy?”

Riddick narrowed his eyes. “So we’re gonna do this a lot, where you pop up in my sleep, we have sex, and you disappear? Might cause a few problems down the road in our _relationship_.”

Loki chuckled and leaned up for a kiss, fading against Riddick’s mouth and leaving nothing but his whisper. “We will overcome any problems, Riddick. Fly faster.”

Riddick woke, face down in bed, a phantom ache in his shoulder where the memory of Loki’s teeth echoed, sheets under him damp where he’d come against them.

And yet, he didn’t feel the flash of melancholy he’d felt before. If their reach was long enough for dream sex, for conversation, then even if they never had more, it would be enough. But he had to admit he wanted more. Whatever that more might turn out to be.

 

Loki took Riddick along the next time he toured the orbital facilities in rapport. Tomas and Mika, and a dozen other Furians, were in orbit expanding the attack and defense capabilities of the planetary system.

 _Now this is more like it_ , Riddick said in approval as they hung above the station.

“This is only the main station,” Loki said. “There are dozens of remote and automated emplacements all the way to the fringes of the system. And there are literally tens of thousands of tiny remote fighters scattered in hiding places throughout the system that can be activated either from here or the planetary rapport.”

_Sounds good. But coordinated military stuff ain’t really my strong point. I’m more of a lone wolf type._

“Then it is indeed fortunate for us all that I have been raised and trained in such skills.”

_Sure, civilized, because the Furians’d be a pack of helpless kittens without you._

Loki snorted. “ _These_ Furians, no. But your ancestors, while foresighted enough to mitigate their disaster, could have used some assistance before the Necromonger attack.”

_Mmm. I guess you’re not wrong about that._

“So generous of you, my beast,” Loki said with a smirk. “These Furians will not be taken in such a fight. I will ensure that. Are we done here?”

_As you keep reminding me, you’re in charge right now, civilized._

“And you think that will change when you are actually present?”

 _I expect we’ll argue about it_.

“Do you _want_ to be in charge of all this?” Loki was curious about his answer.

 _Fuck no. I’m talking about_ us _, civilized. I never wanted to rule jack shit. All I ever wanted was to be left alone but fuck if the universe ever listened._

“My predator,” Loki said softly. “You sound...tired.”

There was a long pause. _I’m sleeping more now than I ever have in my entire life._

Loki bit his lip and waited.

_I’m fine, Loki. I’m always fine._

“Of course you are.”

_Don’t get your tits in a twist about my mental state._

“Well, since that is biologically unlikely...”

Riddick coughed a laugh. _No doubt we’ll argue about this, too. Save it, though, civilized. I don’t want to waste our time._

Loki stared out at the stars, hating the distance still remaining between them.

_Loki._

“I suspect this is new territory for the both of us, Riddick. Though I am awaiting your arrival eagerly, I find I am still...”

_Apprehensive._

“Exactly.” Loki snorted. “Your capacity for clear communication should not surprise me.”

A quiet laugh. _I’ll be offended in person. More fun that way._

“Are you meditating?”

 _Not at the moment._ Riddick made a little sound of wry amusement. _I know what you’re asking. And the answer is..sometimes. Are you?_

“Hah. Sometimes.” Loki turned to look at the world below.

 _It’s beautiful_ , Riddick said softly. _I’m looking forward to being there._

 

Riddick moved uneasily in his sleep and the dream rippled around them. Loki, watching him from where he stood beside the bed, felt it like a distant nausea or an unsteady surface underfoot, like the thickness in the throat warning of bad air. He glanced down at himself and found himself slightly translucent again.

Whatever sleep Riddick was claiming to get was not a refreshing one.

Loki laid down beside him. “Why are you sleeping even in your dream, my predator?” he murmured, tracing fingertips slowly down Riddick's side, over the strong ridges of his rib cage, the silky skin taut over the barely softer muscles at the side of his stomach, to the angular curve of his hipbone, tracing how the great muscles there folded over and swept down into the powerful thigh.

Riddick roused slowly, his eyelids dragging upward as he focused on Loki. Loki fought to keep his expression even and ducked his head to kiss Riddick’s bare shoulder. “Tell me, Riddick.”

“Just tired,” he said, blinking sleepily.

“Riddick...”

“Loki,” Riddick said in a low smoky voice, a slight smile curling the corner of his mouth. “Are you worried about me?”

Loki bit his shoulder.

Riddick laughed and roused enough to shove him back. “Why are you trying to chew on me all the time?”

Loki glowered at him. “It seems to be a reasonable response to your nonsense.”

“Mmm. I’m okay, civilized. Can’t you tell through the bond?”

Loki frowned and touched the center of his chest. The connection was strong and steady, though not as bright and active as usual. Almost like a fire banked for the night, keeping the coals low but active. “Are you trying to hibernate?”

Riddick laughed out loud and stretched like a sleepy tiger, reaching for Loki when he was done and pulling him over on top.

Loki glared down at him as he felt the bond flare back to what he considered normal levels. The dream lightened around them, all the thick feeling fading as Riddick ran his fingers through Loki’s hair. “Only one of us was recreated new, godling,” he murmured, pulling Loki down for a kiss. “The rest of us mortals have a recovery period after shit goes down.”

“So I should leave you be to rest and recover. I understand,” Loki said archly as he started to push away. “We can continue this another time, of course.”

Riddick grinned at him, letting his fingers trail down the front of Loki’s body. “I’m awake now,” he pointed out. “Well. Dreaming awake?” He licked his lips as he studied Loki. “Aware and interested.”

He shifted under Loki, cock filling and obvious against the sensitive skin of Loki’s hip. Loki opened his mouth to reply and Riddick flipped them, pressing Loki into the bed and sliding down to contemplate Loki’s interested erection. “Are you with me right now, godling?” he inquired, his breath stirring over the head of Loki’s cock, his lips barely brushing.

Loki sucked in a breath, and glared at him. “Yes. I am right here, in this moment, my predator. I have not entirely forgotten your lessons.”

Riddick gave him a feral smile as he stroked one finger lightly around the base of Loki’s cock. “Then shall we fucking well get on with it?” Riddick dropped his head to bite the inside of Loki's thigh.

Loki shoved Riddick away. “On your back, beast. I will not endure your teasing.”

Riddick gave him an exaggerated sigh and rolled off to lay back, spreading his legs to make space for Loki. “You know I’m going to fuck you into the next week in person, godling. I’m just being generous now.”

Loki settled on his knees, caressing the insides of Riddick's thighs and studying his predator’s face. In truth, there was still a weariness there, despite Riddick’s smirk, that concerned him deeply. The edges of the dream had darkened again though Riddick seemed not to notice.

Determined, he let one corner of his mouth tuck up and slid a hand under Riddick's knee, made a suggestion of a lifting motion. Riddick bent that knee, foot flat on the bed, and Loki smiled more widely at him, putting his hand on the knee and pushing it further towards Riddick.

Riddick made an equally amused sound and clasped one hand behind his own knee, pulling his leg up toward his body. His other knee bent and he rested that foot flat on the bed. Loki rested his hand on that knee and tilted his head, pretending to consider its position.

“Don't push your luck, civilized,” Riddick growled, though Loki heard the laughter under it.

“Where has your compliance fled to, I wonder? Very well, let us see if we cannot regain that sweet acquiescence, that gracious yielding…”

Riddick's leg started to come back down and Loki laughed, bending to kiss the inside of Riddick's knee, the back of his thigh, while he took Riddick’s cock in one hand and slid a finger below to tease behind his balls.

Riddick’s head dropped back and he inhaled quickly, the dream shivering around them both as his cock hardened in Loki’s grip.

“Too much?” Loki inquired innocently.

“Trickster bastard,” Riddick grated as his thighs twitched. Loki pressed into him with two dream-slick fingers, twisting and curling to stroke him from the inside.

“Loki.” Riddick's voice was ragged.

“Shhhh.” Loki kept his fingers moving in Riddick and shifted over him, letting go of his cock to brace his other hand by Riddick's head. He leaned in until his mouth was just over Riddick's, touching only enough to nudge his mouth open and then breathing in his breaths, the soft noises Loki's fingers drove out of him.

Riddick let go of his knee and brought both hands up, one to wrap around the back of Loki's neck and the other to rest against his side, neither hand applying any pressure. His fingers moved restlessly against Loki's skin, but signaled no other demands. For the moment, he seemed content under Loki, allowing him to do as he pleased.

Loki smiled and twisted his fingers again, brushing Riddick's prostate. Riddick's hips came off the bed a little, his breath catching in his throat.

“More?” Loki whispered against his open mouth.

“More,” Riddick growled in agreement.

Loki brushed that spot again, circled it, teased. Riddick moaned against his mouth, hips lifting. He still wasn't pulling Loki down with hands, but his fingers curled and spread, almost clawing against Loki but never digging in.

“Too much control, Riddick,” Loki admonished him. “This is a dream. Let _go_.”

“Can't…you're not…fuck, Loki, stop. Just for a sec.” Loki did, pulling his fingers out, and Riddick held him, dragged in a couple of deliberate breaths.

The air was thickening around them again and there was, briefly, a blank space that made Loki shudder. “Riddick, something is wrong.”

“Yeah. I need to wake up, Loki.”

“Go. I’ll bring others into rapport and reach for you awake.”

 

Loki threw himself into the chair and reached out to Mika. “Need you and Tomas to go meet Riddick’s ship as fast as possible. Can you do that without leaving a hole in the defenses?”

“We’ll do it,” she said. “On our way. Update us as soon as you have any pertinent information.”

Loki felt a moment’s deep gratitude for her lack of questions and set about waking Furians to go under with him. When he had sufficient in the system, he reached out to find Riddick slumped in the pilot’s seat and cursing weakly.

“Riddick!”

“Ship was sabotaged, probably at the Necromonger fleet. Running low on air, scrubbers down, sensors still show green. There’s Merc ships closing in. No habitable planets around. Gonna have to hitch a ride, Loki.”

Loki closed his teeth on the sounds that wanted to escape. “Mika and Tomas are on the way.”

Riddick grinned savagely. “Got a better idea. Might let slip the location of a bunch of runaway Furians living rough. Easy pickings for a Merc fleet.”

Loki inhaled unsteadily and closed his eyes. “You’d better not be aboard a Merc ship when they attack.”

Riddick laughed until he starting coughing. “Not my plan.” He reached out and began shutting down the ship systems, making it defenseless as the Mercs began closing in.

“Riddick...”

“Loki.” Riddick’s voice was rough but caressing around his name. “Boss Johns’ ship is the one closing in fastest. We have...an understanding. It ain’t gonna be a fun ride, but...”

“I am going to wipe the universe clean of both the Necromongers and these Mercs. I swear it, Riddick.”

A soft laugh as he settled himself to the floor. “Goals are good, Loki. And we’re not out of touch. We play this right and we could wipe out most of the Mercs with this.”

Loki shuddered as Riddick’s breathing grew labored. “I won’t let you die,” he whispered. Riddick’s mouth shaped Loki’s name as he closed his eyes.

Loki raged internally at the universe as Riddick’s small ship trembled for a few moments under the strain of forcible docking with the larger Merc ship and then armored figures were striding in to stand over Riddick’s body, guns all aimed down at him.

The leader nudged Riddick with a boot. “I’d be surprised if you’re actually out, Riddick.”

Riddick’s mouth curled and he squinted up at the leader. “Just taking in all that fresh air you brought with you, Johns. I feel kinda bad. I didn’t get _you_ anything.”

The Merc snorted. “Well now, you’re just one a those gifts that keeps giving, aren’t you? You gonna come quiet?”

“After breathing bad air for days? I’m good, Johns, but I ain’t all that.”

“You don’t mind if I don’t take your word, do you?”

Riddick tensed as Johns gestured, but he wasn’t even able to make it all the way up on an elbow before the tranquilizer shot hit him. He glared at Johns as he sagged back down. “And here I was gonna offer you something you want real bad,” he said thickly.

Johns’ eyes narrowed. “Where were you off to in such a hurry, Riddick?”

Riddick grinned at him lazily as his body relaxed under the drug and then his eyes slid shut and he went limp.

Johns scowled and gestured his men forward. “Bring him on board and secure him. In one piece, you hear? We’re gonna hafta have a talk later, I guess.”

 

Loki watched the Mercs carry Riddick into their ship and chain him in a holding cell, monitoring his well-being through their connection while his rage grew viscous and thick and slowly froze from the center out.

Johns leaned against the cell while his men worked and watched without expression until they left. “You either got to stop making so many enemies, or stop leaving them alive, you stupid bastard,” he muttered at Riddick. “We ain’t settled our old business yet and I don’t owe you this.”

A blonde woman strode into the room, casting a look at Riddick before nodding to Johns. “The other captains are demanding a piece of him. I told them to fuck off for now. We getting involved in his business again?”

Johns sighed. “I dunno, Dahl. Do we have a choice?”

She shrugged, staring at Riddick again. “Always have a choice.”

Loki frowned, studying Dahl as she studied Riddick. Abruptly suspicious, he pulled the world’s sense over his gaze and found Dahl shone almost as brightly as Riddick.

 

When he came out of rapport, Kali let Loki rant until he ran out of breath. “Can’t do much about the universe,” she said calmly. “But you do need to talk to this Furian mercenary.”

Loki glowered at her. “You’re not telling me anything I didn’t already know.”

She sighed and stepped forward, reaching up to hold his face gently in both callused hands. “Loki, you are the strangest combination of spoiled child and grouchy old man I have ever encountered, and I secretly adore you like a son of my own body. You have already escaped death for the sake of love. You have rebuilt a planet. You found all of us and brought us home. You have found your mate and are bringing him home. Though each thing has been difficult, sometimes beyond belief, you have so far overcome every obstacle and used them to accomplish even more. What makes you think, with all of us so determined, that we will not succeed at this?”

Loki blinked at her. “I have been,” he finally said, hoarsely, “immensely lucky to have had such women in my life.”

“Well that you recognize it,” Kali said with a very rare grin. “Now go collect another for us.”

 

Loki let Kali put another dozen Furians into harness and reached back out to find Dahl sitting outside Riddick’s cell, back to the wall, cleaning her guns with a meticulous care.

“You can’t see me,” he said calmly. “But I assure you I am real and not some sort of aural hallucination.”

She froze, surveying the room in a series of fast visual flickers.

“I am not physically here, so I cannot touch you or influence anything around you.”

“Loki?” Riddick’s voice was raspy and low and he lifted his head achingly slowly.

“What the fuck is going on?” Dahl snapped.

“She’s Furian, Riddick,” Loki said, finally seeing a glimpse of humor in the situation.

“The hell,” Riddick started, losing the rest to a coughing jag.

Dahl glared at him. “Riddick’s Furian,” she said to the air. “That’s why the Necromongers want him.”

“Riddick is far from the only Furian,” Loki said with amusement. “Much to my dismay, I admit, living with them as I do.”

“Loki, are you sure?” Riddick shifted in his chains to eye Dahl with interest.

“The world itself is positive. Who am I to argue?”

“Are there others here? Other Mercs?”

“No. Just this one superior creature holding herself down to their standards.”

Dahl opened her mouth and then scowled. “What kind of trick is this?” she demanded of Riddick.

He grinned at her. “Flattery isn’t the way to her soul, Loki.”

Loki made a scornful noise. “Of course it isn’t. And I’m not prone to it in any case.”

Dahl got to her feet and went for the intercom.

“Call Johns,” Riddick suggested. “You don’t want anyone else thinking you’re crazy.”

She gave him a poisonous glare. “Boss,” she snapped at the intercom. “Take a minute.”

“On my way,” came the reply and she took a seat again, reassembling her weapons with an easy speed while she watched Riddick.

Johns walked in and glanced at Riddick, then Dahl. “Tell me,” he said, hand touching his holster.

“I’m hearing a stranger’s voice talking to me and Riddick.”

Johns frowned, pulled out a scanner. “Right now?”

Loki chuckled. “Your captain will not be able to hear me. He is not Furian.”

Dahl nodded at Johns. “Just then.”

Johns glanced at Riddick. “You hear the same thing?”

Riddick let his head rest back on the wall. “She’s not crazy.”

“Nothing on scan,” Johns said, showing her the screen.

She exhaled, rubbed at her forehead. “This voice says I’m Furian, like Riddick.”

Johns sat down next to her, blinking a couple of times. “I think it’s time we had our little chat,” he said to Riddick.

Riddick shrugged. “Loki says to tell you she’ll be in even more danger than me. She bloodied enough noses just getting to where she is. If the other Mercs knew, she’d be sold to the Necromongers before you could even blink.”

Johns glanced at Dahl, who nodded grimly. “That’s pretty much word for word what I heard.”

“I know you think this is the closest thing to family you have,” Loki added, “but there is far better waiting for you on Furia.”

“Furia was destroyed by the Necromongers!” she snapped, startling Johns.

“It is being rebuilt,” Loki whispered. “Reborn and repopulated, the home of a brilliant and dangerous breed of survivors. They are reclaiming their own world and system and making of it a magnificent fortress while they grow in strength enough to reach out and destroy those who dared to attack them.”

Dahl’s mouth hung open, her eyes slightly unfocused. “I...”

“I’ve seen it,” Riddick said quietly. “Loki has shown it to me. It’s the most beautiful world I’ve ever dreamed of. Places to run, and swim, and climb, and hunt.”

“Space to be _alone_.” Loki murmured. “Or to share with select company, as you choose.”

Riddick leaned forward with a savage intensity. “And a purpose worth living for,” he growled, holding Dahl’s gaze fiercely.

Johns put out a hand. “Hey! I’m missing parts of this, here.”

Dahl put her hand on his shoulder. “I want to see,” she said to Loki. “Show me.”

“Bring Riddick to us. Come and see it for yourself. Meet those like you - strong survivors who want better for themselves.”

“Hey. Hey!” Johns said sharply. “Dahl. Report.”

“They’re offering me...”

Riddick kept her gaze and nodded. “Home. Tribe.”

Johns glared at him. “Is that what _you’re_ looking for?”

Riddick nodded again. “ _My_ home. _My_ tribe.”

“You’d settle down?” Johns scoffed.

Riddick turned his dark gaze to him. “It wouldn’t be _settling_.”

“They are all a warrior folk,” Loki mused, watching her. “A people amongst whom you would fit _perfectly_ , where you would be welcomed, desired, sought after. For your skills as well as your beauty, to teach, and protect...”

“Would they expect me to breed?” Her tone dripped with contempt.

Riddick snorted and Loki laughed, conveying his own contempt. “We have crèches for that. A donation of genetic material and we let others, better suited, do that necessary work.”

“Crèches,” she repeated, frowning.

“Genetic facilities. Artificial wombs. Children born and raised together in small groups by caring adults and older children. Think of villages with very large families.”

Her frown deepened. “But what do you want with _me_?”

Surprisingly, it was Johns that asked. “Dahl. What do _you_ want?”

“I’ve made my own place. Here on this ship, with you. I’ve always been loyal to you.”

His voice went soft. “I’m not questioning that, kiddo. I’m not doubting that at all.”

Her eyes were narrow and her back was straight. “I’m not a child. You haven’t called me that since...”

“Since I brought you on board, a fierce scarred kid who’d just killed two Mercs who’d tried something with you. Dahl. You’ve always got a place here. But do you want something else?”

She went silent, staring at Riddick. “You were trying to get off that planet as fast as you could,” she finally said. “Trying to get to this _home_?”

Riddick stared back, his lips pressing together and jaw tightening. “Not...just,” he admitted reluctantly.

Loki opened his mouth to step in and then paused, curious. How did Riddick characterise their relationship?

Dahl tilted her head, a predator sensing a potential weakness. Johns frowned between them.

Riddick sighed and relaxed back against the wall, a smile teasing its way across his mouth. “Loki.”

Loki snorted. “Are you deferring explanations to me, my mate?”

Riddick winced very faintly as Dahl squawked. “Your _mate_?”

“His _what_?” Johns yelped.

Riddick’s mouth quirked. “Oh, are we going for full disclosure, civilized?”

“Do you think anything other than honesty would serve?”

“Guess not.” Riddick rolled his shoulders and looked at Dahl straight on. “There’s a long story I’m not gonna go into right now. But yeah...he’s...”

Johns snorted. “You can’t even say it, can you?”

“Go die in a ditch, Johns.”

But Dahl was regarding Riddick with something softer. “You’re trying to get to Loki.”

Riddick eyed her, nodded, shifting in the chains restlessly.

“Riddick,” Loki murmured soothingly. Dahl looked away from Riddick as he closed his eyes and breathed, his expression more naked than Loki expected him to be in front of the two Mercs.

“Been...a long time,” Riddick said carefully, eyes still closed. “Since we first met. A lot of shit has...kept us apart. But we have a connection. A bond. And I need him.” He opened his eyes as all expression dropped off his face. “And right now, you’re just another obstacle keeping me from getting to him. I know Loki and the other Furians want Dahl. And Johns, you’re pretty decent for a goddamn Merc.” His voice dropped to a rough whisper. “But you’re in my way. Either help or run for your fucking lives.”

Johns blinked, his mouth open slightly, but Dahl nodded. “You were planning to bait as much of the Merc fleet in as you could?”

Riddick gave her a sharp nod, then grinned savagely. “Loki’s been holding a bit of a grudge since Toombs first interrupted us.”

Johns growled. “You’re asking me to betray...”

“Tell him no,” Loki snapped and Dahl gestured to Johns.

“Honor among Mercs,” Riddick rumbled in amusement.

Dahl glared at him then turned back to Johns. “We’ve got Riddick. We’re not sharing him with anyone else. And now we’ve got rumors of a bunch of rogue Furians. We should take Riddick and check it out. If nothing else, we’ve got a line on a huge amount of potential profit.”

Johns looked her over, warmth creeping back into his face. “Sounds like they’re ready to handle a Merc fleet and you want to just traipse in there?”

She shrugged. “We’ve got Riddick.”

“And you want to see this place, and meet these people.”

She shrugged again. “I’ve got a place and people. But it’d be interesting to see what’s there.”

Johns grinned at her and then nodded. “I’ll need a destination,” he said to Riddick. Riddick just snorted and jerked his head at Dahl.

She blinked and noted down numbers for Johns, handing him the pad. “Loki says to make haste. We’ll have an escort halfway in and to not even try to shoot at them.”

Johns opened his mouth and Dahl continued with a grin. “Loki says they won’t shoot at us since we’re carrying precious cargo.”

Johns snorted and rolled his eyes. “‘Precious,’ huh?”

Riddick gave him a lazy grin and rattled his chains. “The accommodations could be better, Johns.”

“You wanna be more in my debt? Hey!” Dahl gave his shoulder a shove towards the door.

“Dick-measuring later. Navigation now,” she said.

“Fine!” Johns waved his hands in aggravation and walked out muttering to himself.

“There is something so appealing about every Furian I have had the pleasure or misfortune to meet,” Loki mused.

Riddick yawned and stretched as much as he could. “Good thing I was your first,” he rumbled.

Loki laughed. “My only, despite attempts to the contrary.”

“Too fucking right,” Riddick growled. “ _My_ Loki.”

Dahl groaned. “Enough with the foreplay.”

Riddick raised an eyebrow at her. “Stop us.”

She gave him an even look and pulled a tranquilizer gun off the wall. “If you can say he’s your mate, I won’t shoot you.”

Loki burst out laughing and Riddick smiled slightly, even as he shook his head. “Not until I can say it to his face.”

“Aw, that’s really sweet,” she said, and pulled the trigger.

She smiled at Loki’s sharp inhale and put the gun back. “I’m trying to preserve him for you. He’s just going to provoke the assholes in our crew otherwise and I’d rather deliver him to you in one piece.”

Loki sighed. “While I don’t like it, I can’t actually argue.”

 

 

 

 


	8. Hunter's Hearth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coming home - a long-awaited reunion, lots of sex, and a happy ending to this arc.

 

 

“Bitch,” Riddick muttered as he forced his eyes open.

“She doesn’t bluff,” Loki said with a chuckle. “She’s a delight to watch in action, too. Everyone in this crew is terrified to cross her.”

Riddick shook his head carefully and glared at him. “I feel like shit. How long was I out?”

“Three weeks,” Loki said, straddling his thighs and running his fingers along Riddick’s arms to where he was chained.

Riddick jerked against the chains trying to reach him. “Am I dreaming?”

A slow pleased smile curved Loki’s mouth as he leaned forward to brush his lips against Riddick’s ear. “No.”

“Then why the fuck am I still chained up?” Riddick growled, yanking hard at the restraints.

“Part of the agreement that let me be here right now,” Loki murmured as he pressed as much of his body as he could against Riddick. “My Riddick, my beast, my predator...”

“Loki,” he moaned, low and desperate.

Loki leaned back, cupping Riddick’s face to stare hungrily at him before touching their mouths together, breathing into Riddick’s mouth, sharing their air. He stretched his arms out along Riddick’s to take his hands, twining their fingers together. Riddick clutched his hands hard, trying to pull Loki even closer.

“You’re really here,” Riddick whispered.

Loki laughed quietly. “ _You_ are really here. At the orbital station above Furia. You and I are here in this cell while Dahl goes out to meet some of the others.”

Riddick blinked. “She kept me tranked the whole trip?”

Loki nodded against his shoulder. “Ruthless, practical, efficient. Kali is very impressed with her.”

“Loki,” Riddick growled. “Unchain me.”

“Johns held back the antidote until I promised to leave you restrained.”

Riddick opened his mouth but paused as he felt Loki’s mouth curve wickedly against his skin and his fingers move with purpose against the locks.

“Jesus _fuck_ , that’s going right to my dick,” Riddick breathed.

“I know,” Loki said smugly, settling a little closer in his lap as he worked on the locks.

Riddick set his face against Loki’s throat and breathed in his clean scent, letting himself relax. When his arms came free, Loki lowered them gently to his sides, long clever fingers working the worst of the stiffness out of his muscles.

Riddick moaned softly into Loki’s skin and Loki chuckled. “You will enjoy the next part,” he whispered, and slipped down to his knees on the floor, between Riddick’s thighs, opening Riddick’s pants before reaching out one hand to each ankle and leaning forward. 

Riddick stopped breathing at the first touch of Loki’s mouth to his cock, feeling Loki’s hands move on the restraints at the same time.

His hands jerked over to curl into Loki’s auburn hair, fingers moving aimlessly as Loki slowly sank down on him. “I’m not going to last...” He broke off as the ankle locks suddenly dangled free and he saw Loki slide a hand down to grasp himself. “Fuck,” he groaned and came down Loki’s throat.

As soon as he could move, he pulled Loki up and slid awkwardly to stiff knees, holding Loki up by his hips and opening his mouth around his cock hungrily. Loki’s fingers scrabbled on Riddick’s shoulders for support as his head fell back and he moaned.

Years. It had been _years_ since he’d had Loki in his hands, whole, living, unambiguous. He inhaled deeply, sorting the warm scents rising from the nest of curls under his nose, the silky movement of skin under the pressure of his tongue, the slight salt and bitter honey flavor in his mouth.

Loki’s fingers clenched once and then he was coming with a desperate cry and Riddick let him fill his mouth before swallowing, savoring the intimate taste. He found himself humming as he worked Loki’s cock until he realized Loki was tugging at him and making quiet pleading noises. He let him slip free and slide down into his embrace and then they were kneeling and wrapped around each other and Riddick didn’t want to let go.

A faint sound made Riddick open his eyes to see Johns standing in the doorway with a shocked expression. Riddick sighed, closing his eyes again. “Go to hell, Johns.”

“Uh...”

He opened his eyes and scowled. “If you’re not here to tell us we can leave...”

Johns put his hands out. “No, no, that’s exactly... Dahl said come over, so...uh...”

Loki snickered into Riddick’s shoulder and reached between them to zip their pants. “We’ll spare your blushes, captain.”

“Jesus,” Johns muttered as Riddick made a low pleased noise at the touch of Loki’s fingers. “Why don’t I just...wait in the corridor...”

“You do that,” Riddick rumbled.

 

Riddick watched Loki grin at the assembly of Furians waiting on the station as they walked off the ship, followed by Johns. There were a dozen of them, including a double handful of children, the youngest of whom raced forward to wrap around Loki’s thigh. Riddick blinked at the small brown child as Loki rested a hand on his head.

“Khanda,” Loki said with affection and then smiled at the other children. “Are you all here to learn to control the remote fighters?”

One of the girl children grinned back at him fiercely. “Already know how. A bunch of us are flying the first wave the Merc fleet will run into.”

Johns’ face was priceless and Riddick had to chuckle. The child Khanda leaned away from Loki to regard Riddick with a very adult thoughtful look. “Mate,” he said uncertainly.

“Yes,” Loki answered him with a pleased smile. “Mine.”

Khanda looked Riddick over thoroughly and then nodded, letting go of Loki and stepping forward to stare up at Riddick. He didn’t show any fear, just curiosity, and Riddick crouched down to be more on level with him.

“Riddick?” Khanda asked, stepping closer to inhale near him.

“Yeah,” Riddick said. He looked the boy over and let him come even closer, allowed the small hand to touch his arm.

“Loki mate Richard B Riddick escaped convict murderer former Lord Marshal Furian,” the boy announced solemnly.

One of the male Furians snorted. “He still doesn’t talk much, but when he does...”

The oldest girl smiled slyly. “I wonder whose order of importance that represents?”

Khanda ignored them to step forward boldly against Riddick, wrapping his arms around Riddick’s neck and his legs around Riddick’s waist. Riddick carefully suppressed his astonishment and stood, holding the child against him securely as Khanda relaxed in contentment, head resting on Riddick’s shoulder.

“So,” said a faintly pregnant women after a long pause. “That’s settled then.”

“Riddick,” Loki said, watching him while gesturing the woman forward. “This is Kali, Khanda’s mother and foremost organizer of our small colony.”

Riddick nodded to her and was opening his mouth when Johns pushed past him.

“Kali?” he said, shocked and staring.

“Well, well. It’s been some time, Johns,” she said with an eyebrow raised. “Krissa, my darling firstborn, come meet your father.”

Most of the Furians in the room, Riddick included, snorted at the look on Johns’ face. The oldest girl of the group stepped forward to look Johns over in frank interest. Riddick could immediately see the resemblance between them, but was further intrigued by the calm and amused confidence the girl carried herself with. This wasn’t an abandoned kid meeting a missing parent for the first time, but an adult meeting someone intriguing.

“Hello, Johns,” she said. “I take it I’m a surprise then. Mother, he’s scruffy but much prettier than you led me to expect.”

Johns did everything but sputter while Kali laid an arm around her daughter’s shoulders. “You must consider that he originally started out as a comfort in captivity. I didn’t care that much what his _face_ was like.”

“You raped a prisoner?” Dahl demanded, glaring at Johns.

“It wasn’t like that!” Johns said frantically, waving his hands.

“Indeed it wasn’t,” Kali said, turning to look at Dahl. “You don’t know me yet, so you’ve no idea how ludicrous that idea is.  I was a captive in transit, and he was a guard, but I approached him.”

“Still a hell of a power differential,” Riddick rumbled, hiding a smile.

“Yes,” Johns snapped. “All in her favor. And I _didn’t_  know she’d gotten pregnant.”

Kali smiled at him. “You were a pleasant surprise and, after the first few times, I thought you’d make a good genetic donor. And I was right. Krissa is more than I could have hoped for in that transaction. Not that you others are less,” she said over her shoulder at the rest of the kids.

Johns blinked. “Are they _all_ yours?”

She snorted. “Thanks for the thought, Johns, but no. I’ve only five so far.” She rested a hand on her belly and smiled at one of the male Furians. “A sixth on the way.”

Dahl stared at her. “You had _five_ kids in captivity? You _chose_ to bring children into that?”

Kali gave her an even look. “I chose to bring more Furians into existence.”

Her daughter Krissa gave Dahl the same steady look and then smiled in a companionable fashion. “We do seem to thrive in adversity, don’t we, Merc?”

Another Furian woman, tough-looking and heavily scarred, stepped up to eye Johns intently. “Sounds like an excellent recommendation, and the results are hard to dispute. Care to donate to the cause?”

Johns boggled and Loki burst out laughing, steadying himself with a hand on Riddick’s unoccupied shoulder. “Siana is in charge of the crèches, Johns. She’s intending to offer you a collection kit, I’m sure.”

Siana shrugged. “Wouldn’t object to the traditional manner, but didn’t want to presume.” She glanced at Riddick and winked minutely.

From his shoulder, Khanda said, loudly and clearly, “Ick.”

Even Riddick chuckled at that. “Hey, kit,” he said as Khanda hid his face. “That’s exactly how I feel about Johns, too.”

 

Loki introduced Riddick to everyone and then encouraged them all, as subtly as he currently could, to board Tomas and Mika’s ship to head down to the planet’s surface. All the other children were left on the station to train for the upcoming ambush, but Khanda would not be separated from Riddick and he had shrugged gently and allowed the boy to cling.

On the ship, Loki leaned against Riddick’s warmth and scent and closed his eyes, trying to hold the moment lightly and not shove Khanda aside and crawl right back onto Riddick’s lap.

He heard an almost silent whispering and Riddick softly murmuring in answer, and he realized that Khanda was telling him everything he thought Riddick should know about the planet.

Loki opened his eyes to watch the astounding sight of Riddick being good with a small child. He felt Riddick’s surge of amusement through their bond and caught the sly flash of eyeshine from the corner of Riddick’s eye and felt the slight shift as Riddick gave him the most minute nudge and Loki wanted to stand and shout at the top of his lungs to the universe, “Yes, this. Exactly this. I understand now.”

Instead, he closed his eyes again and concentrated on his breathing, interspersed with willing the time to pass faster. He was concentrating so fiercely that he jumped when he felt Riddick’s mouth against his ear.

“Who are you and what have you done with my Loki?” his predator whispered, low and rough and amused.

Loki coughed a surprised laugh and turned his head to meet Riddick’s mouth, not kissing so much as breathing into each other. “As much as I want to strip and straddle you,” he murmured, their lips brushing tantalizingly, “I can guarantee that neither of us would enjoy the performance suggestions from our audience.”

“Mmm. Think Johns’ head might explode?”

Loki snorted. “Messy cleanup would delay us further. And you want to leave Dahl in charge?”

Riddick chuckled. “Those’re good points. But I want inside you right now, civilized. And I’m not so good at waiting when it comes to you.”

Loki let slip a tiny whining noise he would never admit to and clenched his teeth together. “Are you being cruel for a purpose or do you really wish me to put on a display for your people?”

His predator’s eyes dilated and he pulled in a long slow breath. “I’m...damn, I’m out of practice at this.”

Loki frowned. “Cruelty? Banter?”

“ _Control_ ,” Riddick growled against his mouth.

Loki shuddered and pushed into a full and hungry kiss; keeping his hands twisted in his own clothing as a last-ditch effort to avoid mounting Riddick in front of a crowd of amused Furians. Riddick was cursing softly into his mouth as they kissed and Loki could feel his frustration with the situation.

And then Khanda announced clearly, “Mika fly faster.” Riddick and Loki broke apart with a laugh as everyone else laughed as well.

“Too right,” Riddick said in his roughest deep tones, giving Khanda a lopsided smile. As he poked at the boy to make him giggle, he didn’t seem to notice how the other Furians went quiet, regarding him thoughtfully, but Loki made eye contact with each of them, staring until he’d received an acknowledgement of some kind.

Riddick leaned over to put his mouth near Loki’s ear. “Done pissing on me to mark your claim?”

Loki snorted. “It would have been quicker just to do that,” he said, holding Siana’s gaze until she lifted her hands in amused surrender. “I don’t want them to get any ideas I have to waste time quashing.” Once done, he turned to Riddick. “Must I beg you to stop touching me and whispering in my ear?”

Riddick’s eyes darkened and he took a deep breath. “If you start begging me, we’re gonna put on a hell of a show.”

Loki groaned. “Mika!” he shouted.

“Almost there!” she shouted back. “Keep your pants on! Please!”

Loki buried his face in Riddick’s shoulder and tried to contain his miffed noise. Khanda reached over and patted his hair soothingly. “Loki Riddick mate soon. Play game now,” he demanded.

Loki sighed and lifted his head. “What game, Khanda?”

“Draw game!” Khanda turned to the nearest Furian and made a grabby hands gesture, smiling when said Furian gave him a tablet.

He handed it to Riddick. “Draw flower.”

Loki sighed again but smiled. “Leave room on the screen for Khanda and I to draw our versions.”

Riddick gave him a deeply dubious look, but took the tablet and drew a simple flower, daisy-like, with multiple loops for petals and a stem with a couple of leaves. Loki grinned and drew a quick but very detailed, almost botanical, sketch of one of Furia’s native flowers. Riddick made an impressed noise in his throat and handed the tablet back to Khanda.

Khanda tucked his tongue between his teeth and stroked his fingers over the tablet, leaving abstract swathes of color that gave the impression of a field of flowers rippling in a wind.

“Well fuck,” Riddick said with an eyebrow. “Looks like I’ve lost this round.”

“Khanda,” Loki said sternly, “you said ‘flower.’ Singular.”

Khanda giggled. “Cheated,” he said shyly and hid his face against Riddick. “Loki pick next,” he said, muffled, but Loki could see his grin.

“Fine. We’ll each draw a knife.”

Riddick made a pleased sound. “That’s more like it.”

Loki went first, drawing from memory a hunting knife Thor had given him at Loki’s coming of age ceremony. The recollection made him smile and Riddick made a humming sound of approval as he passed the tablet to Khanda. The child used a blood-red color and drew only streaks of blood along a serrated edge and bloody finger marks along a handle, leaving the knife itself to the imagination, then handed the tablet to Riddick.

“Khanda,” Loki said. “You’re cheating again. You’ve drawn blood, not a knife.”

“Knife!” Khanda insisted, waving at the screen.

Riddick tilted his head at it. “That’s pretty spectacular. I vote we allow it.”

“Two to one!” Khanda crowed, grinning at Loki in triumph. Loki rolled his eyes exaggeratedly.

Riddick tapped at the screen thoughtfully, then grinned a wicked grin, flashing a sidelong look at Loki before he started drawing. Loki watched a shiv take shape under Riddick’s fingertips, then a long elegant hand holding it, then a portion of hip and muscular backside with a curling pattern spilling away from the point of the blade. Loki was helpless to stop the low sound in his throat.

Khanda had been watching Riddick draw, but he looked up at that. “Cheating?” he asked uncertainly.

“Yep,” Riddick rumbled, smugly.

“Riddick wins,” Loki croaked.

Khanda blinked. “Mika!”

“Landing in exactly 1 minute 17 seconds!” she shouted back.

Khanda hurriedly kissed Riddick’s cheek and then Loki’s, then scrambled out of Riddick’s arm and launched himself over to his mother, giggling.

Riddick grinned fiercely and handed the tablet off to the Furian next to him.

Mika opened the door as soon as the ship settled and Riddick and Loki rose and strode outside, well ahead of any of the Furians, who had all stayed seated with various amused looks.

 

The main landing pad was set near the first river and plains settlement and Loki watched Riddick stop once they were off the artificial surface and take a deep breath, turning in a slow circle to see everything in view. A sweet breeze ruffled the knee-high grasses and moved on to dance along the surface of the sparkling river. Further across the river, the forests showed dark all the way to the distant spine of a mountain range.

“Beautiful,” Riddick breathed.

“Don’t be deceived,” Loki said wryly, kicking away one of the small predators that was trying to sneak up in the grasses.

Riddick bared his teeth and looked around their immediate area with delight. He froze, tilting his head, and waited, staring at a patch of grasses before diving down and grabbing one of the furred, multi-legged beasts that was as long as his arm. It flailed and squealed and tried to claw Riddick while he calmly examined it. “Are they good to eat?” he asked Loki, bringing it close to his face to sniff the fur. “It smells good.”

“They are, but I have no intention of wasting time _cooking_ for the next few days,” Loki said, crossing his arms.

Riddick laughed and tossed the struggling beast away. “Yeah. Take me to bed, Loki. I’ll explore the world later.”

Loki pulled him over to a waiting transport. They still had another leg of the journey, but they were alone and Loki had already automated the small transport for this trip. And included a bed.

Riddick grinned when he stepped inside and started to pull his clothes off while Loki set the transport in motion. “C’mon, fire crotch, let’s see these gorgeous red short and curlies.”

Loki threw him a brief exasperated look as he tossed a container of lubricant on the bed and began to undress. “You’ve already seen them. You had my cock in your mouth on Johns’ ship.” Fully naked, he turned to look at Riddick and stopped dead, stunned anew by the sight of all that golden skin, scars and smoothness, the curve of muscle rippling as Riddick shifted, lightly stroking his own cock. Loki felt the swell of warmth and delight in their bond and the tiny hitch in Riddick’s breathing told him his predator felt it as well.

Riddick grinned and reached for him, pulling him into an embrace. “I was a little distracted before.”

He went into Riddick’s arms eagerly and they stood for a long moment, pressed along the lengths of their bodies, just breathing and feeling the shift of skin and muscle over solid bone.

Riddick rubbed his face against Loki’s hair and exhaled, a long slow release of breath that seemed to release all the tension from his body. “Loki,” he murmured, letting his lips move against the sensitive area behind Loki’s ear. “Mate. Mine.”

The tight opalescent braid of their bond shivered and loosened, then re-wove itself into a pattern so glorious and fine and bright that Loki felt his heart stutter and he clutched at Riddick, desperate for every sense to be filled with him.

“Yours,” he breathed past the closing of his throat and swallowed hard. “And mine.” Abruptly an agitation seized him. “Do you hear me? You are _mine_!” He grasped at Riddick’s back until Riddick pulled his arms down and twined their fingers together.

“Yours, Loki,” he said softly. “Your mate. There hasn’t been anyone since you, all this time.” And Loki could _feel_ the truth of that across their bond; the long years of Riddick carrying a low ache of want, slowly waning, that he had never admitted to. The sharp slice like his vitals were spilled when Loki came back and then was taken away, the helpless fury and numbness that followed, a blood loss that never healed, that only seeped endlessly and left a chill emptiness behind. The wound freshly torn open when Loki was fully reborn on Furia, and then the painful struggle to reach him.

Loki had missed Riddick in the years he’d been entangled as the plaything of the Norns, but it had been dulled, distant, as if something had buried it deeper than he could reach. He hadn’t _suffered_ until he’d been reunited and separated from Riddick again, with all his emotions searing along freshly flayed nerves. But Riddick had bled the whole time and Loki felt an agony of guilt that had Riddick lifting his chin and murmuring reassurances into his mouth like prayers.

Pressed sternum to sternum, bare skin to bare skin, their bond throbbed hard like a single struggling heart shared between the two, then gentled to a tender and faint flutter, a tiny furry thing curled contentedly at the core of Loki’s being.

Riddick took a shaky breath, closing his eyes. “Jesus _Christ_ ,” he whispered. “What’s _fucking_ you gonna feel like?”

Loki laughed raggedly, pushing Riddick down onto the bed. “Let’s find out right now, shall we?”

Riddick bared his teeth and pulled him down, twisting them about so that Loki was underneath him on his back, wide-eyed at being moved about so easily.

“Gods, I’d forgotten about that,” Loki breathed, aroused beyond belief.

Riddick growled, leaning down to run the tip of his tongue under Loki’s jaw and inhale his scent, sucking at the pulse point under the corner of Loki’s jaw. “I’m done indulging you for a little while, civilized. Better be okay with me fucking you into this mattress.”

Loki nodded jerkily and arched up to rub against Riddick. “Please...”

Riddick’s low sound of approval reverberated against Loki’s throat. “Face down, Loki,” he rumbled as he moved to the side and reached for the lubricant.

 

Riddick ran his fingertips along his own cock as he watched Loki turn over onto his stomach and sprawl his legs, graceful despite his haste, his pheromones teasing at the back of Riddick’s nose and throat. He inhaled deeply, tasting them, rubbing the tip of his tongue against the roof his mouth, a mix of those notes he remembered as Loki’s and an underlying essence that tasted like a combination of them both, a marker of how deeply they were entwined.

Pleased, Riddick made a rough sound deep in his chest, almost a purr, as he knelt between Loki’s spread thighs and slicked the fingers of one hand. Loki moaned into the bedsheets, a pleading noise, when Riddick traced between his cheeks, brushing over the sensitive entrance, savoring the quiver of reaction.

Riddick knew he couldn’t draw this out too much; it’d been too long for both of them. He leaned forward and placed his hand between Loki’s shoulder blades, pinning him to the bed, and worked two fingers into him ruthlessly. From the easy way Loki opened for him, crying out with each twist and curl of his fingers and writhing against the bed, it was obvious he wouldn’t need much preparation.

He pulled his fingers free with a last caress inside Loki and gathered more lube, wrapping his slick hand around his own cock and coating himself generously. He kept Loki pressed to the mattress as he pumped his hand a few times, breathing harder at the anticipation of Loki’s velvet heat as much as the sensation of his own grip. The wet sounds made his godling moan and arch his back, offering himself, and Riddick settled full-length against Loki, his hips against Loki's ass, his cock sliding against the slicked cleft.

Loki spread his legs further and let slip tiny pleading sounds as he tried to press up against Riddick. Riddick let his weight hold Loki in place and set his mouth to Loki’s ear but, instead of words, he exhaled a low rough moan as he guided himself into the yielding fever-heat of Loki’s hole. Loki sucked in a shuddering breath as he was filled, his mouth open and moving against the bed as he let Riddick in until Riddick was entirely sheathed inside him. It felt, finally, like Riddick had come home.

Once he was settled deep into Loki, intimately, Riddick traced his nose over the nape of Loki’s neck, the curve of his shoulder, the delicate skin behind his ear, inhaling his scent and tasting him with gentle strokes of his tongue. Loki relaxed under him, his breathing steadying and easing, the desperate movements of his body becoming gentle undulations under Riddick’s weight, and they began to move together in small, slow, surges.

Through their bond, Riddick felt the distant beginnings of Loki’s orgasm, a sparkling rise like liquid static suffusing the fibers, and his own rose in turn, their arousal feeding off each other, echoing each other. Their rhythm sped, Riddick’s thrusts driving harder into Loki’s pliant body until their entwined orgasm crested and tumbled them under in shuddering spasms.

After, Riddick slowly slid himself out, feeling the echo of Loki’s sweet ache. He settled himself beside Loki, lazy and possessively affectionate, rubbing soothing circles on his godling's pale back. Loki turned his face to nestle against Riddick’s shoulder and they laid for a long time, drowsy and sated, in a sea of shifting pheromones.

 

Riddick roused himself when the transport landed, curious about their destination but reluctant to leave the bed and Loki’s relaxed warmth against him. He inhaled deeply behind Loki’s ear and slowly untangled himself, trying to let Loki continue to doze.

“I can _feel_ your excitement,” Loki murmured with a smile. “Your anticipation tastes like the first frost crystals of autumn.”

Riddick snorted. “Did sex drive you to poetry?”

Loki opened his glorious green eyes and regarded him with a sleepy openness, desire and affection swirling together freely with no mask obscuring them. Riddick felt a shared surge of contentment and briefly wondered at the ease of it. Very little in his life had ever been easy, and he still didn’t quite believe the reality of _this_ , of being _here_ , of finally having Loki again. The steady sense of connection he felt through the bond distracted him momentarily, filling him with a visceral confusion of two bodies and two sights, until he had to squeeze his eyes shut and twist his fingers tightly in the bedsheets. “That’s...not good,” he said calmly, waiting for his sense of them to settle apart again.

He felt the pulse of Loki’s worry as his godling, his _mate_ , sat up and reached toward him, then hesitated just short of his arm. Without thinking, he reached out and twined Loki’s fingers in his, sighing in relief as all his wandering senses collapsed back into their accustomed places. He opened his eyes to find Loki frowning, biting his bottom lip, trying to hide his alarm under simple concern.

Riddick smiled and pulled him close for a kiss, stroking his tongue over the slightly swollen imprints of Loki’s teeth in his own lip. “Hey,” he rumbled. “This is just something to get used to.”

Loki nodded, yielding to the kiss while his fingers tightened around Riddick’s. “I’m sure it’s just temporary,” he agreed breathlessly.

Riddick laughed softly against his mouth. “That’d be more reassuring if you were thinking of anything other than my dick right now.”

“Foul untruths,” Loki declared, pulling Riddick back down on top of him. “I’m also considering your hands, and your mouth...”

 

Much later, Riddick disentangled himself a second time, and made for the transport view screen, letting Loki’s fingers trail along his body as he slid from the bed to look outside.

His jaw dropped and he stared for a long moment before racing for the door and throwing it open to step, barefoot and naked, outside.

A cold breeze whispered over his skin as he took in the high grey and black jagged ridges of the mountains surrounding him, snow and ice traced delicately along rocky ledges down to the deep, impossibly green, treeline which lay like a spiky blanket over the knees of immense rocky giants. Before him, nestled into the forest of tall trees, was a jewel of a mountain lake, its frigid blue mirroring the sky above.

His fingers itched to climb the trees, his legs tensed as he imagined hiking the rocky slopes, his shoulders shifted as he stared at the clear cold water in front of him and thought of diving in to swim from shore to shore.

Loki emerged from the transport to wrap around him from behind. “There’s nothing large yet in the lake, my beast, if you’d like to go in. This area needs attention and I thought you might like to stay here while I worked.”

“ _Loki_ ,” he said in a low amazed voice.

“I warn you, the lake is fed from glaciers so...” Loki yelped as Riddick swung him over his shoulder and strode down the rocky beach to the water. “Riddick! I didn’t say _I_ wanted to swim! _Riddick!_ ”

Riddick laughed joyfully before he plunged both of them into the freezing water, the breath forced from his lungs at the chill. Loki cursed him even as Riddick pulled them both underwater and his lips were still moving when Riddick hauled him close for a kiss. Loki kissed him back for a moment before biting Riddick’s lip and shoving him away.

At the surface, Riddick dragged Loki back into his arms before his godling could make his way out of the water. “Loki,” he murmured against his mouth, stilling Loki’s half-hearted struggles by holding Loki’s wrists together behind his back. “C’mon, little jötunn, you’re not cold.”

“ _Little?_ ” Loki growled and Riddick grinned against his skin as he slid his mouth down to nip under Loki’s jawline. Loki made a stifled noise of pleasure followed by a disgruntled huff.

“Hey, you know that...” Riddick broke off as he caught sight of the cabin on the shore, half-hidden in the trees, past Loki’s shoulder. “ _Loki_ ,” he breathed reverently.

“I’m not sure you deserve it,” Loki said, pleased at his reaction but grumbling to cover it.

Riddick took his hand and waded out of the frigid water with him towards the cabin. It had been built out of huge logs and, though it looked rustic, Riddick could see that they fitted perfectly together, requiring only a tiny amount of material between each log.

“Chinking,” Loki said, touching the pale green material and then caressing a log. “I’d never built a structure this way before, but Krissa has thrown herself into learning all the building techniques she can.”

“Makes sense to build out of trees, here. Should I be concerned with how thick the windows are?”

“Furia has stubborn predators, as you may have guessed. Come inside.” Loki smiled slyly. “There’s a tub...”

Riddick laughed. “Show me.”

Inside, the cabin was one large main room and one smaller room that held the bathroom. In the main room, there was a large and luxurious bed, a small but thorough kitchen, a table and two chairs, and an oversized and overstuffed sofa in front of a massive stone fireplace. There was already a fire crackling steadily in the fireplace and the cabin was warm inside and smelled faintly of woodsmoke, but mostly of the sweet scent of the logs.

Riddick smiled around at the furnishings, lush but elegant, and curled a hand around Loki’s neck to pull him into the bathroom. One corner, the floor and walls surfaced with flat black stones, held an open shower with multiple heads. Along the back wall was a wide and deep tub, more than big enough to hold two men, and already filled with steaming water.

“Loki.” Riddick knew his voice was rough and deeper than usual. “Get in the water.” His cock, in an almost instinctual response to the combination of Loki and hot water, was already thickening.

“ _You_ get in, beast. _I_ want tea,” Loki laughed, twisting away from his grip.

Riddick growled but let him go, slipping into the tub  up to his chin and settling back, the sting of the heat on his cold skin making him grin and wriggle a little in the embrace of the water. Fuck dignity, _this_ was worth far more. He ran his right thumb over his right nipple, continuing the motion down his thumb and wrist, rubbing his arm against the nipple as he reached for the other one. He brushed the fingers of his left hand over his cock, teasing himself as he watched Loki prepare his tea through the open door. He let a low rough noise escape him at his own touch and grinned as Loki shivered and paused, hand clenching at the edge of the counter.

“I know what you’re doing, beast,” Loki said without turning.

“Not waiting for you?” Riddick chuckled, then stroked over the head of his cock, letting his eyes close. “ _Nnngh_...hurry _up_ , civilized.” Loki made a strangled, inarticulate, sound and Riddick laughed. “Need waterproof lube more than tea right now, civilized.”

“Seven _hells_ , Riddick!” Loki brought the tea tray into the bathroom and set it on a shelf near the tub, glaring half-heartedly at Riddick, and swung into the tub, reaching to touch the wall beside it. A portion of the wall slid open to reveal a hidden cabinet, shelves stocked with a variety of neatly labeled containers.

“Mmm. I’m impressed, Loki-my-mate. This nest is perfect.”

Loki sighed and pressed his face against Riddick’s throat, breathing into his skin. “Kali believes this entire world is the nest I created for you.”

Riddick tilted Loki’s face up to look at him steadily. “My home is where you are. The rest of this is just...a bonus. A pretty fucking fantastic one, but just a bonus. I was happy with a tiny ship cabin on an ice world.”

Loki slid his gaze to the side, avoiding eye contact. “It was the least I could do, after...”

“Hey. Stop.” Riddick tapped Loki’s cheek with a thumb, compelling his attention. “One, what’s past is past. Can’t be changed. Two, I know you didn’t do it deliberately, so there’s nothing to apologize for. Three, we’re right here, right now. Yeah?”

Loki’s mouth curved in a reluctant smile. “It’s easier to practice this Zen of yours, to live in the moment, when the moment is a good one.”

Riddick laughed softly and pulled his face close for a lingering kiss, humming approval when Loki moved to kneel astride him without breaking the contact of their mouths. He let the kiss turn hungry, sliding his hands down Loki’s sides to cradle his hips, pressing his thumbs hard into the soft flesh inside Loki’s hipbones and swallowing Loki’s surprised gasp, feeling the mix of pain and pleasure through their bond. Loki’s lips curved into a smile before his godling leaned away and reached into the cabinet for one of the containers, gathering some of the thick lubricant on his fingers.

Loki leaned forward again to kiss at Riddick’s throat and reached behind to slip his fingers into himself, each exhale a breathy little gasp as he slid them deeper, twisting them about.

“ _Fuck_ , Loki,” Riddick breathed, stroking Loki’s back and turning his face to capture his mouth again. Loki panted against his mouth, a tiny whine escaping him as Riddick tugged his hand free and pulled him closer. “Slow down, civilized, we’re gonna take our time.”

He turned Loki around and let his godling rest back against his chest, then lifted Loki’s hips in his hands and parted Loki’s legs with his knees. Loki reached back to steady Riddick’s cock and Riddick lowered him gradually, breaching that slick entrance with as much slow control as he could manage. Loki moaned as his head fell back against Riddick’s shoulder, trembling as he rested his hands atop Riddick’s, tangling their fingers together.

When Riddick was finally, _finally_ , buried as deep in Loki as their bodies would allow, he exhaled sharply and let his head rest back against the tub. Loki shivered and began to consciously relax. Riddick felt the effort of that through their bond, Loki concentrating on each part of his body and breathing into it until the muscles loosened. Riddick mirrored his efforts with his own body, their breathing falling into rhythm and their hearts beginning to beat together. When they started to move, a small easy surge, it was together, perfectly coordinated, and for Riddick it was as if he inhabited two bodies at once, penetrating and penetrated, feeling the friction on the outside of his skin and inside at the same time. He and Loki groaned at the same time and four hands moved with one thought, seeking pleasure and finding every sensitive spot with unerring accuracy.

Riddick controlled their pace with a fierce determination to make it last against Loki’s equally fierce demand to drive them faster, harder, _more_ , but it was a rolling tidal swell between them, not a struggle. They laughed breathlessly at the same time at that realization and Loki turned his face to Riddick as Riddick turned his to meet Loki’s mouth. They breathed together for a long moment, lips brushing in delicate kisses, and then Loki smiled wickedly and clamped down hard around Riddick’s cock as he rose in a thrust and Riddick’s vision blurred as Loki closed his eyes when the echoes of that slick grip hit him. 

“ _Gods_ , Riddick,” Loki gasped and they both shifted to ensure Riddick was driving against that sweet spot inside Loki, and then they were tumbling out of control, thrusting together, clenching together, and Riddick couldn’t tell whose hands were wrapped around Loki’s cock, who was crying out, whose balls were drawing up so tightly it almost hurt with the sweetest pain imaginable, and then the tension contracted at the base of their spine before exploding outward, rolling over them and rolling them under in a single, impossible, blinding orgasm that went on and on while their heart pounded and their breath stopped in their throat and they arched until they thought their backbone might snap.

Riddick finally felt them settle gently back into their separate bodies and found Loki laughing hoarsely.

“O my beast,” he whispered, “as delectable as that unity was, I am just as glad it is only temporary.”

“Is it gonna be like that every time?” Riddick rasped as they both shifted to let Riddick, softening and oversensitive, slip out of Loki gently.

Loki caught his breath, also oversensitive, and turned in the water to curl on his side against Riddick, nuzzling against Riddick’s jawline, reflectively nipping underneath as he considered that. “If so, I think I am fine with it.”

Riddick huffed a rough sound of amusement and tilted his head back to give Loki more access to his throat, smiling as his mate whispered in Asgardian against his skin. While he didn’t understand the words, he felt the sense of them and he purred words softly in return. “Mine. Yours. Mate. Love. Home.”

 

 

**Epilogue**

 

Loki lay in their bed, eyes closed as he followed Riddick’s movements through the forest. His mate was crouched high in a tree, waiting for one of the big reptilians to race past below.

He felt Riddick’s splash of amusement as a tiny foliate cat hissed at him from an upper branch and Riddick tilted his head to stare at the fierce little beast, clicking his tongue behind his teeth. The cat blinked, all the green leafy extensions on its skin ruffling until it looked like a bushy little shrub with sharp eyes and then settled into sleekness; it gave a curious _mrrp_ of a noise and curled its tail and leaped down to land on Riddick’s shoulder, claws pricking his skin as it balanced.

Riddick made a rough purring sound in welcome and the foliate cat coiled its tail around his throat and rubbed its face against his cheek. Loki made no effort to keep his amusement from Riddick over their bond and felt Riddick’s answering chuckle and mental shrug.

Both hunters turned their heads at the same time, the foliate cat dropping its jaw with a chattering sound.

“You coming along for the ride?” Riddick rumbled as he readied himself. The cat dug its claws a little deeper and stared in the direction of their oncoming target. “Okay then.”

As the massive reptilian swarmed past the tree, Riddick, and the cat, dropped onto it with unerring precision, Riddick landing behind the head and reaching down and around to open the scaled throat with his shiv, the foliate cat hanging onto the top of their prey’s head and taking out first one eye, then the other.

When the death throes had subsided, Riddick carved out a prime piece of flesh for the little cat and watched it scamper back up the tree with it, disappearing easily among the leafy branches. Loki felt his mate’s pleasure at the successful kill, almost sexual, and the delight in his connection with the other predators of his world. He realized Riddick was humming softly as he cleaned the carcass and began dragging it back to the cabin, and Loki felt the shared swell of contentment as he rose from their bed to build up the fire and welcome the hunter back home.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for waiting so patiently while other stories and characters muscled to the head of the line in my head <3
> 
> The foliate cats owe their existence to a marvelous writer named Andrea K Höst, whose series The Trifold Age, beginning with The Pyramids of London, is a must-read! I have only borrowed them and I can offer nothing in return but my thanks and my hope that she might be as tickled with their home here as I am with their creation in the first place.
> 
> There will be other ShivFrost stories!


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